The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-08
WAGEEARNER'SSHARE
OF PROSPERITY WAVE
Wages Do Not Keep Pace With
Advancing Prices,
SALT LAKE CONDITIONS
COST OF LIVING ADVANCED 30
PER CENT.
SALT LAKE CONDITIONS

There are many families in Salt Lake,
as everywhere else, these days, figur-
ing hard to determine where their share
of the great wave of prosperity comes
in. They know that the country is
prosperous. because everybody says so,
and that makes il 50. They read of
Carnegie scattering Libraries broadcast
as a farmer scattsrs oats; they read OF
J. P3erpont Morgan playing with trans
cOntinentai railroad systems as boys
play with Kite strings; they read about
a erade balance so heavy tfat it is la
Die % throw the earth out of its orbit
around the sun-they read all these
things, ard still they find It difficult to
pay The bills. and they naturally Won
der where the screw is loose.
The trouble is that when prosperity
comes, wages are always the last thing
to be touched, and This is the case in
Salt Lake at the present time. People
know that living - higher; that they
are paying more Tor rent, fuel, gro
ceries, meat, fruit. veRetab leS, clothing,
tools, furniture-for all the necessities
of life than they paid before the wave
came; but they know equally well that
except in isolated cases, wages are no
higher, so that the problem Of living is
just as hard and just as complicated
as before. It is true thai there are
more people az work. but this does not
make the problem of making both ends
meet any easier for the individual
member Of society.
Wages at a Standstill.
So far as careful investigation re-
veals, there has been no increase in
wages in Salt Lake in the past tive
years except in a few cases where or
gained labor enforced its demands and
secured an Increase of not more than
10 per cent. But with the great army
of unskilled IabOr-the common day la =
borers, the railway employees, the
clerks. the men on fixed salarisS-theFe
has been no change for the better, nd
these men are working for praCtically
the same stipends they were receiving
two years ago. In no line of labor has
the increase in wages kept pace with
the increase in the cost of living.
Increase in Cost of Living.
The increase in the retail price of
many of the standard articles of COM
merce since the trusts got in their work
two years ago may be stated in the
following dgures
Canned goods. 20 per cent; groceries.
20 per cent; tobacco. 30 per cent; coal
oil, 50 per cent table salt, 80 per cent;
navy beans. 40 per cent: hams 20 per
cent; bacon, 20 per cent: lumber. 90
per cent; brick, 20 per cent; furniture,
% per cent; structural iron, 100 per
cent; stoves, 20 per cent; clothing, 20
per cent. dry goods 20 per cent: oat
n1ents, 40 per cent; wagons, 40 per cent.
binding Irvine, 80 per cent, nails, loo
per cent; horse shoes, $50 per cent; iron
pipe, 200 per cent; tinware, graniteware
and porcelain. 80 per cent; tools, 90 per
cent; hardware in general. 20 per cent
house rent. 70 peg cent; shoes, 20 pes
cent; taxes, % per cent. fresh meats
30 per cent; fruit and vegetables, 70 PEE
cent.
Average of 20 Per Cent.
It is the conservative opinion of OBJ
servant men in many lines of business
that Irving on the whole is fully 20 per
cent higher for people in the ordinary
walks Of life today than it was two
years GgO- In other words, a man must
pay now Sl.20 Tor what he bought tive
years ago for 81, or to put IT another
way, he must work six days now foi
what he had to work but five days for
two years ago. This applies to gro
ceries. dry goods, hardware. furniture
meats, clothing. building material
shoes, rent, taxes, fuel and light. His
dollar row VIII bring home from tbs
market only about fOur-fifths as much
as his dollar would two years ago. II
he builds he cal. ct as good a house
now for $1,000 as ne could have built
for LOCO two years ago; IL he rents n
must pay SO per month for the house
that cost him $50 two years ago. These
are some Of the reasons why there are
50 many people IL this community to-
day fgU-ing so closely on the ways and
means. There is no doubt that pros
perity is upon US, but many people are
losing confidence in the system of dis
tTibutiOn