Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-12-09
Waves and Cost Of Living.

affected. The latest report of the gov
eminent bureau of labor is largely de-
voted to this subject, and out of its
many tables and mazes of figures the
Literary Digest has compiled a sum-
mary with a few comments and deduc-
tons that we are glad to avail our
selves of. The comparisons are made
| between 1896, the period of lowest food
prices, and 1902, the period Of highest
prices. According to the findings Of
the bureau the cost Of living between
these two periods was increased at the
rate of 1871 per cent, whereas the gen.
cral average of wages in all the in
dustries has increased little more-a
great deal more in the case of the
machine trades. The circumstances of
the comparison are given as follows:
THE figures Of income and expendi-
ture on which the deductions Of the
bureau are made were furnished in de-
tail by 1861 families living in thirty
seven states, including all the principal
Industrial centers-places ait which the
complaint has been the loudest con-
Ycerning the enhanced cost of living
All the families whose expenditures
we're investigated We're of those where
of the head received not more than
$1,000 in salary or wages. 1t is also to
be remarked that the inquiry related
wholly to food prices. and as other in
Hnctf1ra finn0 have chnwn that The in
crease in food prices has been relative
~ larger than the increase of prices of
other necessities, it is a fair inference
including all the items of the average
family budget, that income has in
creased faster than expenditure. This
conclusion is. of course, strongly REIN
forced by the growth of savings banks
deposits, by the greater real estate
holdings of wage-earners, as we'll as by
the many other things which visibly
establish the pleasant proposition that.
to the mass of our wage-earners, the
margin above subsistence is larger
than ever before in our industrial his
tory"
Another fact found disclosed in the
bureau bulletin is that the cost Of food
in the North Atlantic states is greater
than in any other section of the coun-
try, whereas the South Central and
Western states have an average con-
siderably below that Of the United
States as a whole. The cost Of food,
declares the reviewer, "is actually low
err in the Western states than it was in
1890. having decreased from S3S2.61 to
1924: per family during the twelve
years."
Other authorities besides the labor
| bureau have been taking testimony
! with respect to wages and prices. The
statistician Of the National Association
of Manufacturers, for example, reports
that wages have gone up Is per cent.
whereas the cost of living has increased
but II per cent. That these figures
| differ somewhat from the returns of
the bureau is readily explained by the
| fact that they did not deal with exactly
the same items. The anthracite coal
commission Is another authority which
| without giving figures. declared that
the evidence submitted in the great
coal arbitration did not show that the
| increase asked in wages was warranted
by the Increased cost Of living" In in
dividual cases and in particular cases, "
declares the reviewer, certainly the
cost Of living has increased faster than
wage or salary income. but looking at
the subject in the large, and consider
| ing the country as Il whole, 1t is hardly
possible to challenge the statement that
wages have gone up more rapidly than
prices. Thus Is refuted another pet
! theory of the odl-fashioned economists
that. during a time Of enhancing prices
labor is the last commodity to feel the
uplift impetus"
The Digest goes ON to make the COM
ment that comparisons like this arc
| sometimes futile in showing the actual
condition OF labor. The essence of good
labor conditions is steadineSs of en-
ploymcnt rather than the rate of
wages. 1t makes little difference to a
man without work what the rate Of
pay may be, and to get at anything like
an Intelligent understanding of the
labor situation we must view the
amount of labor performed. There is.
of course. no accurate means of know
ing how many men were without en-
ployment during the hard times which
were also the period of lowest prices.
The Federation of Labor claimed that
at one time 100000 laboring men were
without employment. Surprising this
is fair estimate, and that each of
these laborers could have earned $500.
A COUGH