Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-13
CLERKS IN CITIES.
Their Work and Their Pay-The Latter
aQuestion Of Supply and Demand.

From the Chicago News
Clerks constitute one Of the most numerous
classes OF great city's population, and their
types, manner OF life, duties and temptations
make an ever interesting subject for study.
thousands OF men and women are to-day
penned behind the counters of innumerable es-
ADJUSTMENTS in Chicago weighing, measuring,
answering sensible and senseless questions, and
cultivating habits Of courteous address for
their own and their employers interest-and
the majority Of them for pittance wholly dis
proportionate, it is said, to the duties required
and the services rendered. The connection
| between clerk hire and crime and immortality,
| the responsibility Of employers for the hard
ships and slips of their employees, the physical,
mental, and moral consequences Of what clerks
| as a class have to undergo, are thus matters Of
vital importance to the students of social
science. Said a gentleman yesterday in refer
ence to this phase of city life:
most OF what people term the abnormal
| features OF social development find their ex-
PLANTATION in private motives, in the mate de-
| SIRE OF individual citizens; and I hold that
| clerks themselves are primarily responsible for
what are commonly set forth as wrongs and
hardships. The wages for services are not
| essentially different from the price of commodi-
ties. Supply and demand regulate both. An
abundant supply or an unusually strong de-
the reverse means fall.
Now let me give you a few facts. From all
appearances there is little or no difference be-
| tween the present decade of our history in re-
spect to popular sentiment and the decade pre-
ceding. Hence, the facts of one period are
approximately true for another. From 1870 to
1850 the gross increase of the population of the
United States was DOS per cent. During the
same period agriculturists increased in almost
exactey the same ratio as the general increase.
Manufacturers and miners increasedin number
AZ per cent, while professional men and those
engaged in personal service show an increase
| OF 81 per cent. Our farmers, manufacturers
and miners are practically our only wealth.
producers, and we find their average percent
age of increase to be &c. Thus we have a 50
per cent increase of alth-distributors merely
handling the products Of So per cent increase
of wealth-producers for q 80 per cent general
| increase of population.
These figures, think, are very significant.
What is more, they only tell half the story.
During the last decade-and the present will
yield equally surprising results when the cen
sus of 1890 is taken-farm laborers increased
only Is per cent in the face of a 80 per cent
general increase, and domestic servants only
10 per cent, while general clerks and copyists
show 315 per cent increase; clerks in hotels
and restaurants, 107 per cent increase; wait
ers and porters, $50 per cent increase. and
laborers about stores and warehouses an 813 per
cent increase. Now, from the very nature of
things, what must be the inevitable result of
such a state of affairs upon vast number of
the population of cities3 Simply small wages,
irregular employment and often privation and
consequent wrong-doing
For the multitude it is proverbially true
that city life is more desirable than country
life, and it is equally true that the work OF
clerks, despite its annoyances, is less laborious
and more agreeable than that of laborers.
Hence to be with the crowd and have genteel
work have grown to be little short of national
evil. That employers are often criminally
negligent of the health and welfare of their
help is true.
"As look at the matter many, if not most,
of the evils experienced by clerks and people
similarly employed spring from the senseless
passion OF the masses to forsake small towns
and rural districts for the metropolitan COM
munities. "A year and a crust in Chicago is
better than lifetime and roast beef on the
sand heaps of Hammond seems to be the pre-
vailing notion. Hence, moral responsibility
aside-and moral responsibility cuts small
figure in such matters-Chicago employers feel
little necessity of catering to the needs or de-
sires OF employees or of offering high induce
ments in point of wages. The whole thing
practically comes to this There is the place
so many hours a day, so much pay. II you
want it, take it; if you don't, somebody will be
glad to get it.. Personally think the clerks
position anything but easy and his pay any
thing but adequate, but till we have less dis
parity in the number Of wealth producers and
wealth. distributors matters will not be much
better"