Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1916-11-01
PAIL MAY Be FILLED
BUT IT COSTS MORE
If You Can't Buy as Much Now as
Before With Your Earnings.
No One Should Succeed in
Pooling You into Beiiev-
ing Prosperity is
Real.
ITS \ MUNITION
MIRAGE THAT'S ALL.
Peace is Coming, This War Business
VIII Vanish in Twinkling and
Prudent Citizens VIII See That
the Party of Protection is in
Power Then to Guard
Against the Competition
OF LOw-Paid Foreign
Workers.
IT'S \ MUNITION
MIRAGE THAT'S ALI.

The Democrats tell you to vote
for Mr.. Wilson and Democratic con-
gressmen because you have been
made prosperous by the present ad-
ministration.
You know what makes you pros
porous. You ere prosperous when
you have plenty OF dollars and when
each dollar is a big dollar-when il
will buy a lot of meat or bread Or
house rent. No one can tell you that
you are prosperous because you have
more dollars-no one can tell yol
that if you know that each ID q:
has shrunken so much that your
weeks wages will buy less than be-
fore. 1t isn't wages that mGe, !;
prosperity. 1t is wages and low pri-
ces.
The Democratic party says that it
lis responsible for the prosperity
THAT has come upon you. Well, if the
administration is responsible for
your situation, it is responsible for
prices as we'll as for wages isn't it?
So you discover whether the Demo
cratic party has made you prosper
Gus by seeing whether they lave
brought you more high wages OF
more high prices. Ii you can't buy
as much as before with your earn
ings, no one can tell you that you are
more prosperous.
1t happens that there is one set
of official figures on the increase il
prices between 1913 and 1916. YOU
recall, in 1913 the Democrats came
into power at Washington. 1t is in
teresting to see what has happened
to prices since then. These are
wholesale prices, but retail prices
which you pay, follow the wholesale
prices up and down. According t
these official figures in 1913 uoul
cost $5.75 per barrel; l. costs 81
now, an increase of 5612 per cent
Have your wages gone u as much
as that?
In 1913, when Mr.. Wilson began
to make you prosperous, sack o.
potatoes could be bought Tor S4.2J,
now they cost $3.50, an increase Of
So u per cent. Sugar cost q
cents per pound in 1913. now il
costs u cents, an increase of $3.50
per cent. Stewing beef has gone III
from IL y cents to 10 cents, or q
per cent. How about your own
case? Have your wages increased 81
much that you are better off than be-
fore?
Perhaps the Democratic orators
will tell you that these prices are due
to the war, due to abnormal condl-
tions that will pass. Well, if that
is true Of prices, it is also true OF
wages. Think it 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 coun-
try with war orders: munitions,
steel, boots and shoes, saddles, pow
der, mules, horses, grain and meat
to feed the armies? If Mr.. Wilson is
responsible for these conditions then
he made the war. Is he willing to
take that responsibility, too?
If the Democrats want to be judg-
ed by normal conditions, recall
their record in the peace period be-
tween March 4, 1913, and August /,
1914. You remember what their
record was, then. By the summer
OF 1914 thousands of American wor.
kingmen 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 Demo
Gratis 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 remember that
in the summer Of 1914 we had more
unemployment than the country 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 at peace? Or, do you want
the party that has protected you
from low paid foreign workers and
that believes in American jobs for
Americans? Then vote for Charles
e. Hughes for president.