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Show STILL ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC CONTENTION CONTEN-TION IS EXPLODED. . "Destroy the protective tariff and tho high cost of living will be reduced automatically." This was the principal Issue, virtually tho only issue on which the democratic party sought return to power in 1912, says the Washington (D. C.) Post It was a slogan that appealed to the crowds. The people of tho country wero enjoying better wages than ever before, but they were paying high prices for food. Since there was no suggestion that the loss of protection would menu tho loss of employment nlso, a largo number of the people voted for what they thought would mean a lower cost of living. Moro than two years and a half have passed since the people voted for the removal of protection protec-tion nnd the lowering of the cost of living. A ma-ority, ma-ority, it Is true, voted for tho candidates who favored a continuation of the protective policy, but because the majority divided their votes between be-tween two protectionist candidates tho solid vote of tho minority, constituting a plurality, carried the tiny. Two yeAVit ngo tho protective tariff was destroyed. de-stroyed. Yet tho trend of the cost of living Is hUU upward. Prices nro higher now thnn they wore under tho much maligned Payne-Aldrich law. For fifteen nrticlcs which aro served on the table of the worktiigmcn of tho United States the average prlco for the year 19M was 2 per cent higher than In 1913. And tho average price wns 5V4 per cent higher than in 1912. The figures which show tho heavy increase, despite tho fact that Gl per cent of all imports aro now coming in free, aro not the result of any compilation from republican sources, but aro the official result of an Investigation made by the department of labor under the present administration. |