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Show ! PLACES BUI ON IHEWI1 President Kirby of National Mannfactnrcrs' Association f Talks of Cost of Living. SAYS THE WORKING MAN . HAS RAISED THE PRICES Does Not Forget io Take a Rap at Gompers and Mitchell in Address. SPRINGFIELD, Mass.. Jan. 11. Large responsibility for the h'lrher cost of living liv-ing was laid by John Kirby. Jr., president of tho National Manufacturers' association associa-tion upon what he called, thc "labor trust" in an address here today. Mr. Klrby's address .as largely a reply to a recent Implied attack upon his organization or-ganization in an article in the National Civic Federation Review. lie said: ''The primary cause of constantly advancing ad-vancing prices of commodities of all kinds lies at the door of the labor trust, a cardinal car-dinal principle of which Is to raise wages and restrict production, neither of which can fall to diminish thc purchasing power of thc dollar, and when working together they doubly depreciate Its value." Work of Mark Hanna. Mr. Kirby then recites the formation of the Civic Federation as a national organization organi-zation by thc late Mark Hanna, speaks of Its purposes, and says: "It was sincerely believed by many that the organization would necompllsh wonders won-ders In solving the so-called labor problem prob-lem and for those thus minded 1 have nothing but commendation. "It soon developed, however, that the affairs of the organization were being managed In the interests of the American Federation of Labor, and Samuel Gompers Gom-pers became Its commander-in-chief, and with Mitchell and teoslcy as aldc-de-eamps proceeded to shear and trim the lambs. Roast for Labor. "When the official organ of thc National Na-tional Civic Federation presents In group form as It did In their November number a picture, of llfty-four of its members, with Gompers and Mitchell fresh from thc Toronto convention and their anarchistic dctlance of our courts still vibrating through tho air, occupying central positions, posi-tions, the former lo&ited 'next door but one' to President Taft. and the latter touching the 'hem of his garments.' Is not such a spectacle enough to make honest hon-est citizens sit up und thinkV" |