(a) This column of percentages was obtained by dividing total compensation by total number of employees for average yearly wages.

(b) This column was obtained by dividing the mean between the first and last days of the year, as explained in the text.

* Estimated for 1895.

All but the last two columns and the last line of this table is copied from the speech of Hon. Charles H. Grosvenor in Congress, March 28, 1904. To obtain the yearly averages, General Grosvenor divided the total wages paid in any year by the mean number of employees at the end of this year and at the end of the previous year. Calculated in this way, the average wages were 7 per cent. higher in 1903 than in 1897. Dividing the total wages of each year by the number of employees on June 30, which is perhaps the fairer way to make comparisons, the average wages in 1903 were only 2 per cent. higher than in 1897, instead of 7 per cent., as estimated by General Grosvenor. Since 1903, there has not been even a 2 per cent. increase in railway wages; on the contrary, as is well known, there have been material cuts in the wages paid railway labor, especially to such employees as are not members of labor unions. At a conservative estimate, 200,000 men have been laid off with no wages at all, and the wages of many classes of labor that were retained have been reduced since 1903 by an average of 10 per cent., and this, in spite of the fact that the cost of living has continued to advance, and on March 1, 1904, was 43 per cent. higher than on July 1, 1897.

The table shows that the average daily wages of all classes of railway employees has increased barely eight per cent. Even the Bureau of Labor was forced to admit that the retail prices of 1903 were, on the average, 10.3 per cent. higher than those of 1890 to 1899. Bulletin No. 53 of the Bureau shows that the following articles have advanced more than eight per cent., and, hence, more than the wages of railway employees:

The earnings of a day's labor in railway employment would purchase less of every one of the articles in the foregoing list in 1903 than would the slightly lower wages of 1892 to 1899 at the very much lower prices of the last decade. In order to know what real wages are it is necessary to find out what the money received as wages will buy. An advance in the amount of money received

which is accompanied by a general advance in prices which is proportionately greater leaves the workingman in a worse position than before. The foregoing shows the decrease in real wages as applied to the purchase of articles of food. Bulletin No. 51 of the Bureau of Labor, shows that, on the basis of wholesale prices, the advance in the cost of the following classes of commodities has so far exceeded the slight rise in the wages of railway labor (as measured in money) that the purchasing power of a day's work has decreased. As compared with what his day's work would purchase in 1892 to 1899, the day's work of an average railway employee will now purchase:

The average loss in purchasing power with regard to all classes of commodities, as shown by the official statistics, is precisely five per cent.

MONEY WAGES VS. REAL WAGES.

The real wages of labor are goods, not dollars. Men cannot eat or wear money; money can only be exchanged for goods, and until BO exchanged the laborer cannot tell whether his wages are high ог low. Money wages may be going up, while actual wages due to the higher prices of goods are going down. This is actually what occurred from 1897 to 1903. The reverse occurred from 1890 to 1897, as is clearly shown in the following chart. In this chart the dotted line "Railroad Money Wages" shows the course of the wages of all railroad employees; the light line "Wholesale Prices" indicates the changes in prices, according to Dun's index numbers. From 1890 to 1897 the dates selected are January 1; since and including 1897 two dates each year are selected-January 1 and July 1. The heavy line "Purchasing Power Wages" shows the course of actual wages, that is of wages with relation to the goods the laborer's money was able to procure at the prices which were charged in the years mentioned:

CHART SHOWING PURCHASING POWER OF WAGES.

1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904

1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904

From this chart it is seen that between 1895 and 1897 many wages suffered a slight decline, but because of a still greater decline in prices real wages enjoyed a considerable increase. Further, it is made plain that since 1897, in spite of a 7 per cent. increase in money wages, there has been nearly a 30 per cent. decrease in real wages, because of the fact that since 1897 the increase in prices has amounted to more than 40 per cent. The rise in money wages is not keeping pace with the rise in the cost of living. For this reason, in spite of occasional apparent increases in money wages, there has not been a time within the present generation when the struggle for existence is as hard as it is now, or when the "full dinner pail" is as small as it is to-day. The size of the "full dinner pail" has been steadily diminishing since the advent of Dingleyism, with its resultant trusts and monopolies.

LABOR'S SHARE OF THE PRODUCT OF LABOR IS RAPIDLY DECLINING.

The following table, compiled from census bulletins, shows the percentage of increase in the number of wage earners and the total wage paid in the United States, and in the five manufacturing states of Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The figures are for the ten years ending in 1900:

It is seen from these figures that, considering the United States as a whole, while the number of laborers increased 25.2 per cent., yet the total amount of wages paid to them increased only 23.2 per cent. equivalent to a net decrease of 2 per cent. in wages. In Illinois, while the number of laborers increased 41 per cent., the total wages paid them increased 34 per cent.-equivalent to a decline of 7 per cent. in wages. In New Jersey, the increase in the number of laborers was 39 per cent., but the total wages paid them increased only 32.7 per cent. In all of the great manufacturing States shown above, the amount paid in wages has signally failed to keep pace with the increased number of wage earners. Other census office figures show even more conclusively that the laborer is not obtaining a just or equitable share of the fruits of his toil. The following table shows the percentage of the total value of products paid to wage earners in the United States, and in the States named, in 1890 and in 1900, and also the percentage of decrease in the share of the values they created which were paid in wages to the laborer:

The above table shows that in 1890 the wage earners of the United States received in wages 20 per cent. of the value of all the manufactured products for that year while in the year 1900 they received in wages only 17.8 per cent. of the product value. Or, in other words, the wage earner's share of the wealth that he supplied the labor to create has been diminished year by year until now he is receiving nearly 12 per cent. less than he did ten years ago. And taking up the States shown in the table above, one by one, we find that the wage earners' share of the product value during this decade has decreased 2.5 per cent. in Illinois, 5.9 per cent. in Indiana, 3 per cent. in Massachusetts, 23.8 per cent. in New Jersey, 13.4 per cent. in New York, 7 per cent. in Ohio, 8.6 per cent. in Pennsylvania, 4.3 per cent. in Rhode Island.

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN FAMILY PAYS A TRIBUTE OF $94 A YEAR TO PROTECTED TRUSTS.

The tariff question is a business proposition that concerns every man, woman and child, for it taxes the average home $110 a year, or more than one-tenth of the average family's total income. There is an average of one and one-eighth tenths earners in the average home. These contribute thirty days' labor each, or fiftyfour days' labor a year to the tariff-tax collectors. If this $110 went as honest taxes to our government to meet necessary expenditures, no fault would be found, though the tax would be considered extremely high. But only a very small part of this $110 can be classed as legitimate taxes. By far the greater part goes to million and billion dollar tariff trusts and monopolies, which thrive now as never before in this country. These greedy trusts levy a tribute of $94 a year upon the average home, while the government collects an average of about $15 a year in tariff taxes; the collection last year amounted to $3.49 per capita, or $16.52 per