'SEPTEMBER 29, 1905
The Commoner.
'compilation made by the. bureau or labor, fifteen
oi,nw an advance and fifteen a decline but off-
t sot the fifteen articles that show an advance be
; cause those articles that have advanced in price
jnoro largely enter into consumption.
IN MAKING ITS statistics the bureau of labor
has taken a basis of relative prices in order
to make its comparison as follows:
Price in Price in
1894. 1904.
f, Beans J-"0" Alua
Beef roast and stew y.i li.a
Beef steaks 99.1 113.4
Salt beef 99.6 108.3
Wheat bread 'J.7 lua.u
Cheese 99.2 107.4
Chickens - ..." 97.1 120.7
Corn Meal 102.2 121.5
EKS 9G.3 130.9
I Fresh Fish , 100.4 107.9
Salt Fish 101.5 iii.y
Milk 100.2 10G.2
Mutton and lamb 107.8 114.1
Fresh pork 101.8 124. p
The report comments on figures in other
tables as follows: "The price of fresh roasting
and stewing beef in 1890, it is shown, was 99.5
per cent of the average price during the ten
year period from 1890 to 1899. In 1891 the price
was exactly the same as the average price for
the ten-year period that is 100.0. The lowest
point reached was in 1894, when it was 98.6 pet
cent of the average price for the ten-year period.
The highest point reached was in 1902, when it
stood at 118.6. In 1904 it stood at 112.8, or 12.8
per cent higher than the average price for the
period from 1890 to 1899. Eggs show a marked
increase in price during the last few years. In
1900 the price was 99.9 per cent of the average
price for the ten:year period, 1890 to 1899; in
1901 the price rose to 105.7, in 1902 to 119.1, in
1903 to 125.3 and in 1904 to 130.9. The price in
1904 was 31 per cent above the price four years
previous."
IN THE SAME report is presented a compila
tion of the relative prices in the United
States of certain groups of related articles of
food botween 1890 and 1904. The report says:
"Under 'cattle products' are shown the three art
icles, beef, fresh roasU and stews; beef, fresh
steaks, and beef, salt. The price of er.cl of these
three articles was higher in 1891 than in 1890;
that of the two kinds of fresh beef was lower
and that of salt beef was higher in 1892 than in
1891; prices of roasts and stewj were lower and
of steaks and salt beef higher in 1893 than in
1892; all three articles shov lower prices in 1894
than in 1893; in each year from 1895 to 1902, in
clusive, the price of each of the three articles in
creased; all were lower in 1903 than in 1902;
prices of roasts and stews and salt beef were
lower and steaks higher in 1904 than in 1903.
In the group 'hog products' all the five articles
take the same course in each of the six years,
1891 to 1896; in 1897 all except lard were higher
than in 1896; in 1898 all except salt ham were
higher than in 1897; in each of the four years,
1899 to 1903, all five articles were higher than
in the year immediately preceding; in 1903 fresh
pork, dry or pickled pork and lard were lower,
while bacon and ham were higher than in 1902; in
1904 all were lower, than in 1903."
AM INTERESTING calculation as to the cost
of living is given in the following quota
tion: "In the North Atlantic states the average
cost per family (assuming that food was pur
chased in the same quantity each year and that
the expenditure for each of the various articles
bore the same relation to the total expenditure
for food each year) was $330.35 in 1890, $333.26
in 1891, etc. The lowest cost was $312.91 in 1897,
and the highest was $360.70 in 1904, a difference
of $47.79. For the United States, considered as a
whole, the average cost of food per family in
1890 was $318.20. In 1895, the year of lowest
prices, it fell to $296,76; in 1904 it reached the
highest point of the period, being $347.10, a differ
ence between 1896 and 1904 of $50.34, or 17.0 per
cent. The changqs in the cost of living as shown
relate to food alone, representing 42.54 per cent
of all family expenditures in the 2,567 families
furnishing information."
THE ENTIRE postal money order system has
been revolutionized because of the conduct
of a Brooklyn, woman who, it is alleged, issued
forged money orders. The New York World tells
the story in this way: "For some time the govern
ment experts at Washington had desired to alter
the form of money orders so as to avoid frauds,
but it was not until the young postal clerk's oper
ations were detected that the experts discovered
a way to prevent crookedness in that branch of
the service. All of the outstanding blanks are
being called in ami new blanks, liko express or
ders, are being printed at Washington in a rush.
The new order when torn from the book by tho
postal clerk leaves a stub which shows tho
amount of the money order. The auditor of tho
New York postolllce said that tho narno of tho
missing clerk of the Sixth avenue sub-station is
Lvdia A. Engelke, and that she is 21 years old
and lives with her parent.) somowhero in Brook
lyn. The auditor said Miss Engelke's niothod
was to issue money orders for $100 each, pay
able to F. J. Needham. deposit $1 in the cash
account of her sub-station in each case and cash
the orders at a private bank further up Sixth
avenue, representing herself to be F. J. Needham.
By accident, the postal authorities say, she chose
the name of a Fourteenth street publisher. Tho
forged money orders passed through the clearing
house and the general postolllco without detec
tion until last Saturday, when seven post-dated
money orders for $100 each all cashed the day
they were issued, aroused suspicion and led to
inquiry and the clerk's flight. The auditor said
that with the existing form of money order blank
it would be possible for a money order clerk to
issue 100 forged orders for $100 each, clearing
$10,000. As there are 245 of these ofllces in New
York alone, the authorities were staggered by
Miss Engelke's operations and the peril involved.
The missing young woman has, so rar, eluded tho
cleverest postal detectives in the service."
THE CONGREGATIONAL ministers of Chicago
held a session September 12 and dlscussdd
tne "tainted money" question. Rev. W. A. Bartlett,
pastor of the First Congregational church, pro
posed that the Chicago ministers unite In a tele
gram to the board of commissioners for foreign
missions, whose annual meeting was soon to bo
held at Seattle, urging that body to refuse tho
admission of any resolution on "tainted money."
Doctor Golden, a Congregational clergyman of
Chicago, had already left for Seattle, after an
nouncing that he would introduce in the board a
resolution condemning the solicitation or accept
ance of funds "from persons whose gains are gen
erally believed to have been made by methods
morally reprehensible and socially injurious."
Doctor Bartlett's proposition was after a long de
bate voted down.
THE CONGREGATIONAL, board of foreign
missions, in session at Seattle, decided to
rejpet all resolutions pertaining to the contribu
tions of "tainted money." This action was taken
with respect to a resolution offered by Washing
ton Gladden, which resolution provided that the
missionary board should not solicit money from
men who have gained their wealth through means
dishonest and oppressive. Writing to the Omaha
World-Herald, John Williams, one of Omaha's best
beloved clergymen, says that so far as the Glad
den resolution goes, tho missionary board might
receive money if offered without solicitation from
men who have gained their wealth dishonestly.
He cites the fact that one of the speakers at tho
conference said that while it was wrong to re
ceive money from these questionable sources if
offered openly and ostentatiously, yet the money
could be rightly accepted if, offered privately and
without ostentation. Mr. Williams thinks that in
both the Gladden resolution and tho speech re
ferred to "the high moral principle Involved is
surrendered, probably through parliamentary
timidity, in order to ga!.i something for an appar
ently desperate cause in the present conference."
MR WILLIAMS contends that if it be wrong
'to solicit money for missions from men
who have gained their wealth dishonestly or from
men who are openly accused of doing so by re
sponsible men, then it Is wrong to receive it with
out solicitation. He adds: "If it be wrong to
receive such gifts, when offered openly, ostenta
tiously, then it is wrong to receive them when
offered quietly, in secret. It seems to me, sir,
that these gentlemen would place their churches
in the position of what is known as a fence for
stolen goods. It would be wrong for the manager
to openly solicit a thief to deposit a part of his
stolen goods with him for a virtuous purpose,
nut it would be harmless to receive and apply
toem If offered without solicitation. It would be
wrog to receive and apply these goods , tc . a vlr u
oub end if offered ostentatiously, but if the thief
comes by night and offers them they may be ac-
copted thankfully. Mr. Rockefeller's wealth han
been obtained cither houoHtly or dlHhonoHtly. It
honestly, then it can not be wrong to solicit glftn
from him for missions, or any other good cause,
or to receive them, howovcr openly or ostenta
tiously offered. If gained dishonestly, ns charged
then, whether by solicitation or otherwise, wheth
er offered ostentatiously or otherwise, tho man or
tho church that taken tho money partakes with
the thief, so long as ho continues in his evil
courso, without open confession and amendment.
Dr. Gladdcn's appeal to tho future, such as It Is,
does not desorvo to succeed and It will not In
that form. Ho has fatally compromised his noblo
position taken at tho outBot, probably for somb
tactical purpose I deeply regret It. Sin rests
In the thought, in tho act, not In the publication
of tho thought or tho net."
rp HE CADLILLAC, MICHIGAN, correspondent
1 for the Detroit News-Trlbuno, under date
of September 17, says: "Charles B. Nelson,
aged .'II, died hero today at tho home of his par
ents, after carrying a bullet Imbedded In his
heart since 1898. Ho was shot while sitting In a
Chicago park by someone whoso Identity was
never discovered. Quick conspumtlon was tho
Immediate cause of death. Nelson had frequent
ly submitted to X-ray examinations, which
showed tho location of tho bullet, and he has
boon on exhibition In museums. Ills wife died
in Milwaukee Monday. Reports were current
that tho young woman had taken her own llfo
upon hearing that her husband was dying."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL does not ap
pear to be very hopoful or fearful, as you
please- of railway rate legislation. The Journal
says: "It Is almost certain that any bill doslred
by tho president on this subject would bo passed
by the house of representatives, but It would
meet with determined opposition In tho senate.
While the senate committee which has been In
vestigating the subject Is to prepare a bill, there
Is no likelihood whatever that, in Us Initial form
at least, It will conform to tho Idea of what Is
needed so often expressed by the president In his
public addresses."
TT WRITING IN the Denver News, Senator
VV Thomas M. Patterson says that when con
gress meets If no extra session Is called two
issues will press for consideration and will bo
"played against each othor." Tho senator ex
plains: "Tho senate will bo complaisant Ju the
matter of tariff reform, and will roll that pro
found proposition up tho difficult hill of unlimited
debate. But nothing worth while will bo accom
plished, because the speaker or tho house and
the speaker's committee on rules will 'stand pat.'
The public will get the benefit of the tariff de
batenothing more. Radical action by Germany,
Canada or some other important market might
modify this plan. But the play will be made as
outlined unless the hand of tho party Is forced
by action abroad. Tho other topic one close to
the president's heart is the regulation of railway
rates by the enlargement of the powers of the
interstate commerce commission or tho creation
of a special court, with power to act, placing
the burden of appeal jipon the railroads. On
this proposition the position of tho two houses
is reversed. But despite this change of position,
the play of the leaders Is the same. The house
will 'save the face' of the party by passing, 'with
marked enthusiasm, a bill which embodies the
president's views and even the majority of demo
crats will be forced to support It. In the senate
this bill will go to committee, and when It
emerges therefrom very late In the session it
will be 'talked to death' or amended, the amend
ments being so constructed as to Insure opposition
in the house."
SENATOR PATTERSON points out as Interest
ing facts that the house of representatives
stands with the president as regards railway
rates, but against him as regards the tariff,
while the senate Is against him on the question
of railway rates and may support his views on
tariff reform. Senator Patterson concludes: "Tho
making of laws is a legislative function and not
an executive but so far as it Is right for him to
do so it Is certain that the influence of the presi
dent will be steadily exerted in favor of these
two policies. He has an immense popularity
which has lately been increased by his success In
bringing about peace between Russia and Japan,
and the question is whether the president with his
personal popularity and the support of the great
bulk of the people can bring congress around to
his way of thinking."
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