The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, September 09, 1904, Page 6, Image 7
, s I 6 ' K, U . ' ' iv'. . r- lr i ! fi 0 from other causes will bo about 5,000. The pen sion system was the greatest burden In 1893, When it was equal to $2.24 per $1,000 of taxable property; It is now $1.34 per $1,000. In ten years iriore the burden will coaso to be noticed, says Commissioner Ware. The pension commissioner recommends Somo now legislation. Ho thinks that those who are (fonvicted of an Infamous crime should forfeit "their pensions or their rights to pensions; that pensions should be denied to women who marry soldiers as tho soldiers become old pensioners, and that a different system of exami Inlng applicants for pensions should bo adopted, tho present system, in his opinion, being uncer-, tain, expensive, and unsatisfactory, for It is liable to, outside control and political dictation." A READER of the Now York .Sun recently sub mitted to that publication the following in quiry: "I recently stated to a friend -that tho stock ola certain Londpn water company was the high est priced stock in the world and that I believed that a fraction of a share of tho said stock had occasionally been soldi at an enormous price. This ho was Inclined to doubt. Was I not right and toll mo tho name of tho water company and some thing of its, history and tho price of its stock?'' REPLYING to this inquiry; tho editor of the Sun . says: "You were right. The shares In, tho New River companyr recently taken over by tho municipality of London, were the highest priced stock in tho world. In 1G09 Hugh Myddleton, a London goldsmith and tho projector of the scheme, turned tho first sod of the channel river rising at Chadwell and Amwele Springs In Hertfordshire, which was brought to London by a winging course ' of forty-eight miles, and completed in 1613. Stock in the undertaking consisted of 72 shares, divided into King's and Adventurers' which originally brought only 5 pounds apiece. Charles I sold his shares to Myddleton's representatives for an an nuity of 500 pounds. On November 1, 1876, part of a Kingte share was sold at the rate of 94,050 a share. On July 17. 1889, an entire Adventurer's share was bought at auction by tho Prudential Assurance company for 122,800 pounds. In 1888 tho annual income of the company from land and water was stated to be 511,356 pounds. On June 24 of this year all the property of tho New River and several other 'London water companies was' taken over by the municipality under the Metrop-' oils Water act at a total cash price of 24,695,200 pounds." ' - rSTRUCTIVE contribution to the discussion of tho disfranchisement question was recently made in a discussion between the Washington, D. C- Post and one of its readers, Dr. Robert Ray b.urn In a widely copied editorial tho Post said: "The Post lias never believed that disfranchise ment should be drawn on the color line. We have always preferred tho Massachusetts plan of shut ting ouf incapables from tho voting 'privileges. And the state of Mississinni and Smith nniviiino Whoso negro population is in excess of the total v of whites, borrowed the Massachusetts scheme. Wo hope our correspondent has noted the im portant fact that the Mississippi adaptation of the 3ay atato plan for protection against an ignorant m and degraded mass of voters has been carried to tho United States supreme court, and that its con stitutionality has boon affirmed by that tribunal." "PBL;YING to the Post article. Dr. Itayburn '. XV-wrote as follows: "As will be hereafter shown, tho plans for excluding illiterate voters in Massachusetts and Mississippi are radically dif-' ferent in tho following-respects; First The Mas- sachusetts law did not deprive a single voter of his right of franchise, for it only referred to future elections, Which would occur after tho -passage of the lawk Second The Massachusetts plan was per fectly fair in that it gave no preference -to tho white over tho colored voter, 'but treated all alike. As your readers well Imow, this is not tho case In Mississippi, By a clause in its new constitution, .that state has practically disfranchised all its colored voters onthe ground of Illiteracy, while it allows the white Illiterate voter the franchise. What has been the offocfof this? Mississippi, at the last election, with a population of 1,551,270, cast only 48,648 votes; only one-third of the white voters wont to the polls, Maryland, at tho same election, with a population of 1,188,044 (nearly 400 - 000 less), cast"244,C95 votes. Mississippi is rapidly becoming, an oligarchy." T NSrDERINa Dr.Rayburn's-.last'.remark, the -!& MtiMutks;n&l( nhfii-jfiiJikmBlbllity -would , :. rest, iflissideippi -should become mn-oligarchy: and - thn thePostrfadds; ,"-Itwwas -assail candid miirids The 'Commoner.: ' " concede, impossible for that state (Mississippi) to remain In tho condition in which the Fifteenth amendment placed It.' Tho Post continues: "With a black population, largely in excess of the total of white inhabitants, and led by unscrupulous ad venturers from tho north, the situation would have been intolerable and impossible of maintenance, oven had tho freedmen been of a superior class. But there was not anywhere in the area that had been covered by slavery a more hopeless mass of ignorance and superstition than Mississippi held. Tho white minority, in delivering itself from tho domination of such a majority, obeyed the first law of nature, which is higher than constitutions or statutes. But it fortunately happened that Mas sachusetts had pojnted a way, for their deliverance, ; by which they were able to obey both the first law of nature and the constitution of the United States. That point has beon settled once and for all by a decision of the highest tribunal." IT IS vigorously contended by- the Post that there is no substantial difference between the Missis- slppl plan and tho Massachusetts plan, tho Post contending that the Mississippi plan, whatever may be said to the contrary, has passed the crucial test and stands approved by the United S'tates supreme court. The Post adds: "It may be that there are defects in the application of suffrage laws in Mississippi which are not found in Mas sachsuetts, but if tho white people of the Bay stat6,. o.r of any other northern state, had, like the White inhabitants of Mississippi, been submerged under an ignorant and superstitious black majority, a deluge of semi-barbarity, controlled by the cun ning and greed pf a few white adventurers,' what would have been the result? Who does not know that, if tho men In Mississippi who owned the tax able property and had almost a monopoly of tho influences that dominate civilized communities, had quietly submitted to negro and carpetrbag rule, had been content to be represented in the United States senate by a negro barber from Terre Haute, Ind.,and a white school master from Hart ford, Conn. who does not know that such craven submission would have incurred the contempt of all the white manhood In the north? And, .more than that, the intelligent negroes of the north would have despised them. But the main fact for. Dr. Rayburn, and those who feel as he does on this subject, to consider it this: The Mississippi plan has the approbation of the court of last-resort. -Another fact .that we commend to their serious at tention .is that the uninterrupted trend of events for the past twenty-five years has been toward a return to ante-bellum conditions as relates to state control of suffrage." . ' ; THE title of an editorial recently appearing in the Atlanta Constitution is "Statistical Jug glery." tt would be well if this editorial could be printed in every newspaper in tho United States. In the beginning the Constitution says: "Among the mafcy good old reliable aphorisms needing modern revision, is the one which touts the over lasting veracity of figures. -A very pertinent In stance is given by Chairman Cowherd, of the demo cratic congressional committee, wherein he dis sects tho optimistic table of statistics on "wages and the cost of living,' recently sent out by 'Com missioner Wright, of the government labor bureau. Mr. Cowherd very plainly demonstrates that the statistical conclusions of the commissioner were artfully manipulated to suit the exigencies of a republican campaign. He confirms this assertion by producing contrasting figures from the most reliable sources, among them Dun's commercial review, which is undoubtedly the best authority on this subject in the United States, with apologies to Mr. Wright, Chairman Cowherd summarizes the showing of the commisisoner, as follows: -1. That the retail prices of food were 10.3 per cent higher loon9?3 tuan tnc average for the-10 years from 1890. to 1899. 2. That the weekly "earnings 'per employ were 12.3 per cent higher in 1903 than the average for the 10 years from 1890 to 1899. 3 Tn!S thG- l)urcnasInS Power of the wages -was, in 1903, 1.8 per cent -greater than the average for the 10 years from 1890 to 1899." IT IS further pojnted out by this same authority . that Mr. Cowherd thinks it is cause for sur pnse that the commisisoner did not make his margin of increase even larger. The most plausi- bl exJ? aAuation of hls failu-re to do so being the probability that the present industrial conditions would have caused "a rather more audible smile than that now being indulged in at -present " For instance, Chairman. Cowherd takes up minor points ot. the .labor situation and the wage piirchasW powerirrtlicatedyby the oveiXeport! andnalyzeshesamefollows:. "i he niim - ,bcr of.peopleemployed in 1903 .was fcM per cent ' greater than the average from 1890 to 1899 9 Tho hours of labor per -week were 3.4 ner oJl less in 1903 than the average from 1890 to S 3. Hence, the weekly earnings of all employes Z 41.9 per cent greater in 1893 .than the average J2 1890 to 1899. It is plain to every purenfser ?f household supplies for tho past 10 years that these statistics are utterly unreliable and have been manipulated in the interest of prptection and of the republican Darty. Tho truth of the matter is there are 200,000 wage earners today on a striiJo They are on a strike either because the cost of living has reduced the purchasing power of thn wage received or because their wages have been reduced within the year.' The trade journals in- . f?rmnn5 Eiat for tne years 1903 and 1904 the wages of 1,000,000 men, largely in the protected Indus! tries, have been reducedjrom 10 to 30 per cent It is estimated that the number of men now unem ployed is 600,000. They have been laid off by tho railroads and by hundreds of the great mills throughout the country. Many have been dispos sessed of. their former homes and are sleeping in the parks' in the great cities. They have hungry families, for whonTthey are unable to provide and more men have committed suicide in the past year than ever before in tho history of the. country." MR. COWHERD further points out that Dunn's price tables are scientifically constructed .that they are proportionate with consumption and' maintain an even balance between the relative importance of the articles consumed; that Com--.missioner Wright's tables made for campaign ma terial, show an average increase in prices since 1872 only one-half as great as those of Dunn. Ex plaining how easily this specious showing may bo made, Chairman Cowherd says: "He magnified little, trivial articles, like nutmegs, putty, and alum, until they looked as big as cotton, corn and hay. Thus in his 1902 report the decline in the price of nutmegs more than counteracted the ad vances in the prices of sugar, eggs, milk, bread, and fresh beef. The average family consumes about 3 cents' worth of nutmegs in a year and $150 worth of these other articlesthat is, Colonel Wright magnified nutmegs about 5,000 times before he compared them with these other articles. In' this way Colonel Wright kept prices down, so that' for 1902 his figures showed an Increase of less than 2.6 per cent over the 1897 prices, while the scientific figures of Dunn showed a difference of about 37 per cent." . " . , COMMENTING upon this interesting statement, the Atlanta Constitution , says: "It seems that even twenty-six per cent was too alarming for campaign year, so the wily statistician resorted to a very engenious scheme to prune this down ap parently. Instead of making the basis of compu tation wholesale prices, which are almost univer sally stable, retail prices of a favorable nature in isolated communities were hauled into requisition. In this extraordinary way, the prices of thirty articles of food were collated at figures which made a very favorable showing for the administra tion. As Mr. Cowherd says, however, 'the cost of food forms only ahout 40 per cent of the cost of living. For aught that .this report tells us, the cost of clothing, of fuel or rent and' other items of, the cost of living, may-have gone up three times as much as has. the cost "of foodstuffs. It is easy for an expert to jump at conclusions.' He makes out a pretty plain case of 'expedient manipulation' relating to the wage scale, in the following explan ation: ' ' Out of the 3,429 establishments selected, for comparison, 1,199, or more than one third, are in . the building trades. Of " the re mainder, 1,188 establishments were flour mills, bakeries, foundries arid machine 'shops, planing mills, newspaper printing offices, marble and stone works, blacksraithing- and horseshoeing shops, and street and sewer works. All of these and many others are in the -unprotected industries, and in many of them the strength of the unions has been developed in recent years, so that the rise in wages comes within the period covered. Not one-fourth of the establishments selected are in the protected industries. Colonel Wright began an investigation of railroad and mining wages. In his report ho expresses, regret "that the force available fpr the prosecution of tho work did not permit of the extension of the investigation to cover transportation, mining, agriculture, and the other great industrial groups." The last report of the interstate commerce commission gives the real reason why the bureau of labor report con tains -nothing as to. railroad wages. - This report in . dicates vtha"t av.erago--twagjg wore only, about 3 vper:.centiiigher,in.d:0.3:,than,ifta897f -Their Pub" plication iwould diay-isppiledthecbloneTs figures and seriously4marredjihearraqny'f the effect. - Hencepho? wisely decided 'to cut them-out.'" Est ,, ,.a?, , - j ' .4 "f..i ,v,, 4-- r