LOWER PRICES IN THE UNITED STATES THAN IN ENGLAND.

The claim is often made that while wages are higher in the United States the cost of living is correspondingly cheaper in Great Britain. That this statement is erroneous can be proved by official statistics obtained simultaneously in both countries. In 1892 the Senate Committee on Finance made an extensive report on "Retail Prices and Wages" in leading cities of the United States and Europe at different periods from June, 1889, to September, 1891. Among the cities considered in this report were St. Louis, Mo., and Manchester, England, cities for which wage comparisons have just been made. A comparison of the prices of articles of identically the same description, obtained at the same time, namely, June, 1889, and September, 1891, in both cities, shows that instead of the necessary commodities of life being higher in the United States than in England, they are, on the contrary, as a rule, much lower. This is shown in the table which follows. A glance at this table shows that most of the necessary food products, such as bread, eggs, lard, bacon, roast beef, hams, mutton, milk, starch, and canned vegetables, were much lower in St. Louis than in Manchester, while the prices of the few remaining food products averaged about the same in both countries.

With regard to clothing and cloth goods, we find that men's hosiery, cotton shirts, sheetings, shirtings, and cotton and woolen dress goods of the same description and quality, were cheaper in St. Louis than in Manchester; that carpets, flannels, and cotton underwear averaged about the same, and that only in the case of men's hats was there any decided difference in favor of the Manchester purchaser.

Household articles, such as earthenware, glassware, and cutlery, were nearly the same in price in St. Louis as in Manchester, with

a very slight difference in some cases in favor of the latter city. On the other hand, furniture costs from about one-fifth to one-half as much in the United States as in Great Britain, so that for the cost of one bed-room set in Manchester one could buy from two to three sets in St. Louis; and for the cost of one dining table at Manchester, a whole dining-room set could be bought in St. Louis.

But the question may be asked, "If the American workingmen earn so much more and pay so much less for what they consume, why are they not all wealthy and contented?" The answer may be found in the statement of the eminent French scientist, Prof. Emile Levasseur, in his work on "L'Ouvrier Americain" (The American Workingman). After summing up the conditions of labor in America as compared with Europe, he says that wages in the United States are about double the wages in Europe; that objects of ordinary consumption by working people (excepting dwelling houses) cost less in the cities of the United States than in those of Europe; that the American workingman lives better than the European, that he eats more substantially, dresses better, is more comfortably housed and more often owns his dwelling, spends more for life insurance and various social and beneficial associations, and, in short, has a much higher standard of life than the European workingman.

So it must be in the future. We gird up our loins as a nation, with the stern purpose to play our part manfully in winning the ultimate triumph, and therefore we turn scornfully aside from the paths of mere ease and idleness, and with unfaltering steps tread the rough road of endeavor, smiting down the wrong and battling for the right as Greatheart smote and battled in Bunyan's immortal story.-Theodore Roosevelt, in speech at Minneapolis, September 2, 1901.

Not only in our own land, but throughout the world, throughout all history, the advance of civilization has been of incalculable benefit to mankind, and those through whom it has advanced deserve the highest honor. All honor to the missionary, all honor to the soldier, all honor to the merchant who now in our day have done so much to bring light into the world's dark places. -Theodore Roosevelt, in speech at Minneapolis, September 2, 1901.

Call the roll of nations which are for protection. * * * At least 430 million people are in favor of protection and 38 million Britons are against it; to whom must be added those Americans whose numbers are not known, who, while living under our flag, seem to follow another.-Major McKinley at Toledo, Ohio, February 12, 1891.

Cloth and clothing:

Miscellaneous:

per dozen...

Furniture, bed-room set, ash or elm, 3 pieces (bedstead, bureau,

and washstand).

Furniture, tables, dining, plain oak extension, each, 5-foot.

Furniture, tables, kitchen, plain wood, 4-foot...

Glassware, tumblers, common pressed, 1⁄2 pint, per dozen
Knives and forks, table, iron handles, per dozen each
Lamp chimneys, A Sun, each

a Prices in Liverpool.

With the sole exception of the farming interest,
no one matter is of such vital moment to our whole
people as the welfare of the wage-workers. If the
farmer and the wage-worker are well off, it is abso-
lutely certain that all others will be well off too.
It is, therefore, a matter for hearty congratulation
that on the whole wages are higher to-day in the
United States than ever before in our history, and
far higher than in any other country. The standard
of living is also higher than ever before. Every
effort of legislator and administrator should be
bent to secure the permanency of this condition of
things and its improvement wherever possible.—
President Roosevelt in message to Congress, De-
cember 3, 1901.

Very great good has been and will be accom-
plished by associations or unions of wage-workers,
when managed with forethought, and when they
combine insistence upon their own rights with law-
abiding respect for the rights of others. The dis-

Manchester prices not quoted.

play of these qualities in such bodies is a duty to
the nation no less than to the associations them-
selves.-President Roosevelt, in message to Con-
gress, December 3, 1901.

Our first duty is to see that the protection granted
by the tariff in every case where it is needed is
maintained, and that reciprocity be sought for so
far as it can safely be done without injury to our
home industries. The well-being of the wage-

worker is a prime consideration of our entire policy
of economic legislation. It is discreditable to us
as a nation that our merchant marine should be
utterly insignificant in comparison to that of other
nations which we overtop in other forms of busi-
We should not longer submit to conditions
under which only a trifling portion of our great
commerce is carried in our own ships.-President
Roosevelt, in message to Congress, December 3,
1901.

ness.