Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1916-10-31
Is There Real "Prosperity"P

The Democrats tell you 10 vote for
Mr.. Wilson and Democratic congress
men because You have been made pros
porous by the present administration.
You know what makes you prosper
Gus. You are prosperous when you
have plenty Of dollars and when each
dollar is a big dollar-when it will buy q
lot of meat or bread or house rent. No
one can tell you that you are prosperous
because you have more dollsrs-no one
can tell you that II you know that each
dollar has shrupkeu so much that your
weeks wages will buy less than before.
II isn't wages that make prosperity. II
is wages and low prices.
The Democratic party says that it Is
responsible for the prosperity that has
come upon you. Well, IL the admins
tration is responsible for your situation,
it is responsible for prices as well as for
wages, isn't it? So you discover wheth
or the Democratic party has made you
prosperous by seeing whether they have
brought sou more high wages or more
high prices. If you can't buy as much
as before with your earnings, no one can
tell you that you are more prosperous.
1t happens that there is one set of Off
cial figures on the increase in prices be-
tween 1918 and 1916 You recall, In
1918 the Democrats came into power at
Washington. 1t is interesting to see
what has happened to prices since then.
These are wholesale prices, but retail
prices, which you pay, follow the whole
sale prices up aud down. According to
these official figures in 1918 -four cost
1915 per barrel; IL costs 80 now, an in
crease of So 1-2 percent. Have your
wages gone up as much as that?
In 1918, when Mr.. Wilson began to
make you prosperous, a sack of potatoes
could be bought for 1925; now they cost
$3.50, an increase of IS 1-2 percent.
Sugar cost IL cents pound in 1918;
now II costs IL cents, an increase of
3S 1-2 percent. Stewing beef has gone up
from II IL cents TO Is cents, or 20 per
cent. How about your own case? Have
your wages increased so much that you
are better off than before?
Perhaps the Democratic orators will
tell you that these prices are due to the
war, due to abnormal conditions that
will pass. Well, If that is true of prices,
II is also true Of wages. Think 1t over.
Are not the higher wages in this country
in so far as there are any higher wages
are not these higher wages due to the
abnormal flooding of this country with
war orders: munitions, steel, boots and
shoes, saddles, powder, mules, horses,
grain and meat to feed the armies? II
Mr.. Wilson is responsible for these con-
ditiops then he made the war. Is he
willing to take that responsibility, too?
II the Democrats want to be judged
by normal conditions, recall their rec
ord in the peace period between March
4, 1918, and August /, 1914. You re-
member what their record was then.
By the summer of 1911 thousands of
American workiDgmen were walking the
streets looking for work. They should
have been at work producing goods that
were sweeping into this country from
Germany and England. The Democrats
in 1913 had reduced the tariff protecting
American workingmen, had thrown
them out of work and given their jobs to
men in England and Germany. You re-
member that in the summer of 1914 we
had more unemployment than the coun.
try had seen for years.
Peace Is coming again. Then this war
business will disappear. Do you want
more of free trade party that threw
American workingmen out of their jobs
the last time that the world was al
peace? Or. do you want the party that
has protected you from low paid foreign
workers and that believes in American
jobs for Americans?