Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-09-10
CAN LILLEY EXPLAIN IT
Why inc Full Dinner Pail Costs
 More as Wages Go Up.

More as Wages Go Up.
 Employees of the different city de- partments, outside the clerks, think and probably rightfully so. too, that the time has come when the price of common labor should be advanced so that men who look to that class of living may be able to get along in the world as we'll at least as they could few years ago when wages were as high as they are at present and the cost of living considerably lower This is quite a question and no matter what view one might take of it, it cannot be denied that there is lot of merit in it. With the ex- ception of clothing, everything that enters into the cost of living is out rageously high and it is a miracle how working people manage to keep roofs over their heads and at the same time meet other legitimate obligations. Everybody is complain ing about high rents, but when you talk with owners of buildings they tell you a sad tale of woe regarding the added cost of plumbing and such other work as they have to attend to now and then so that while .he tenant is right in saying that rents are high really the landlord is not in {n Enh Ia fn if he does he soon would go to the wall himself and nobody IS called upon to pauperize himself to help others. It costs almost as much to shingle a house to-day as one could put up a nice cottage for some years ago and contractors say that things will be. higher. If this be so there is trouble ahead not only for ten ants, but for everybody. If it can be done without making the burden too heavy on rate payers, the city laborers ought to get dollar or tw1 more each week in their envelopes but this will not remove the source of the evil. The trouble is not due to anything that has occurred in the city government, but can be traced to the White house at Washington where all our great men meet anl make fine speeches about the pros perity of the country while millions are on the verge of starvation, and the most discouraging feature Of the situation is that it appears +o be generally understood that most of those starving human being will be found at the polls next year voti:.:s to continue in power the men under whose management they have been reduced almost to the level of pauperism. Some very good citizens will tell you that it is not the fault of the party in power and that if you want to get at the root of the evil you will have to look elsewhere. Probably this is true, but if it be our wise men who know the exact loca- tion of the hitch should point it out and insist that the remedy be ap. piled before things become more serious than they now are. If the party in control is not responsible for the condition of the country, surely the fault cannot be laid at the door of the party not in power and for the same reason 1t cannot be expected to do anything towards bringing about change. When a political party is in control its eX- ponents invariably declare that it is not directly responsible for the condition of the country, but when it is out and wants to get in 1t has a different tune and takes the ground that the country is going to the dogs and will soon be thing of the past unless it gets hold of the reins of government, and unfortunately a bullible public too often takes the oily tongued orator seriously and as result men who are starving fear tc make move because the stump speaker succeeds in convincing them that if they budge the half loaf will disappear and they will live no long. CT than they can survive on wind and water.
 Employes of the street department who feel that they ought to have 8 little more pay would make no mis. take in extending an invitation tC their townsman, Congressman George l.. Lilley, to meet them some even ing in City hall and explain the why and the wherefore of the marvelou: advance the past few years in the price of all commodities, except la bor, and what rule of life, if any. ht would suggest which would enable 6 laboring man to maintain a family and make provision for the rainy da! on anywhere from SIPS to s1.75 6 day. There must be something wrong somewhere and if we have no body at the helm who is able to dis cover the weak spot and put things ir good working order, then there ought to be a change, even though oul august president, Theodore Roosevelt should have to take to the tai l timbers.