The Washington times., 1904-07-30
A Pet Argument.


trust just now is that thousands of
men out Of work can fill the places of
the strikers, and will be glad to work
for Is cents an hour, instead of the
lSH cents demanded. The conse-
Quence of this line of reasoning is all
the present trouble
The uncertain condition Of the la
Dor market. the entrance of women,
girls, and children into this market,
and many degraded conditions of liv-
ing, all follow in the train of the
theory that labor must be bought in
the cheapest market, especially when
monopoly which need fear no COM
petition is doing the buying. Let us
take a typical case.
In a large business not requiring
long experience in its workmen there
lG young fellow who comes to town
willing to work at anything he can
get. He accepts the wages of a new
hand" which are sufficient to support
him so long as he lives alone, and
gives him a small-very small-sur-
plus for pleasures. He works and
saves for two or three years and mar
ries, having had his pay raised from
time to time so that. with the small
savings he has accumulated, he can
support a wife and family.
As time goes on and his family in
creases, his pay is also increased, so
that, with close economy, he can take
care Of his wife and three or four
children. and probably one Of his
wife's parents or his own. Then
| comes = time Of business depression
which throws out of work a lot Of IN
skilled laborers somewhere else, and
the town is full of unemployed men
who would be glad to work for the
wages of new hands.
1t is true that our Iaborer has no
unusual talent, or he might have be-
come superintendent or foreman; but
! there are only few such places, any
way, and not more than half enough
for the men who could fill them. He
is simply a good, honest, hard-worlz-
ing man, who wants his children to
have a chance to grow up healthy and
intelligent. He now receives the in
formation that his wages viii be cut
to the level Of the market price, and
that instead of getting IS cents an
hour, $3.50 a day, or 5000 a week, he
will get only So a week. and per-
haps not that, if the market price
| should sink.
A single man can live easily on
50 a week. but how about this
man, who is supporting seven people?
/ This is not an uncommon case, either.
and there have been cuts which sliced
an even greater percentage of the liy-
ing expenses. Obviously, the money
lost must somehow be made up, and
so the wife. or the eldest girl, or the
eldest boy goes hunting a job
Now, multiply this laborer's case
! by several hundred and see what hap
pens. Thousands of women, girls,
and boys are thrown into the labor
market, and take whatever places
they can get. They will work for SO,
81, or S. a week, and take the places
which men would only occupy for IS
or more. And so it goes.
! If President Roosevelt wants to
/ know what the cause of race suicide
is. he can look at this situation. The
| percentage Of marriages is smaller,
/ and the percentage Of vice slightly
larger, among girls and women who
work at iIl-paid labor They do not
/ marry, because the men with whom
/ they are thrown cannot afford TO
marry IN the uncertain state of the
| labor market; they turn now and then
TO vice because they cannot live on
their wages if obliged to support
themselves, unless they possess a
/ strength OF character rare enough
among human beings anywhere.
II is pretty hard on a girl to be
Obliged 10 look forward TO working
for just enough money to support
herself, until she is an old woman
without love, without children, with
out interests outside her work, but for
all that, hundreds of them do it, in
every factory town. The way to pre-
vent race suicide is 10 make homes
/ possible and practicable and attrac.
tive, and this cannot be while there
is no security OF wages, and no Ger.
tainty that good character and faith
full work viii secure a man in his job