Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-29
THE MAN ON SALARY


ever put in a word for the fellow VINO
works on a salary. said the man with the
raveled smoke None o fthe politicians
or participants in the campaign tai..ests.
for the matter of that, gets out onto the
firing line with any sort of stand-up for
the salaried man. and that's something
that can't figure out There's all kinds of
escaping steam and baked atmosphere
about the American wage-earner, meaning
the man who works with his hands. that
is. but nary cheep does any of them ex-
ude about the American salary-earner
Whats the matter with US fellows who
work for a salary starting salaried mans
union, hey? There are good many mil
lions of US. and we ought to be able TO
start something.
There are buttonhole makers unions,
f1ageoiet players unions, plumbers APP
prentices' unions, rofing timers assistant
helpers unions, and all kinds of unions Oh
wage earners. but us fellows who have to
work on a never-increased salary, year In
and year out, don't unioniZe, and We never
ask for anything, which is why we never
get anything but the cheap end OF It,
THE American wage-earner Is taken care
of all along the line. because he knows how
to take care of himself. AS the prices of
things to eat and wear advance, he sees to
it. and takes blame good pains to see to it,
that his wages advance proporttonately.
He gets the good out of the protective sys-
tenn, which is why he votes for it.
But where does the shoe clerk, or the
ribbon measurer. or the motorman, or the
government clerk, for the matter of that,
who work for a stated and stationary in
come, that never is increased under any
circumstances, no matter how vastly the
prices of eatables advance, come in?
He simply goes without the things to
eat that he used to have, that's all. There
are. as say, millions of men in the United
states working for stationary salaries, and
working hard, at that. They hold down
for advancement, and if they get out with
the idea of improving their condition there
are plenty OF men to take their places.
When the prices of food climb up as they
have been climbing right along during re-
cent years. where does the man with the
liked and stationary salary get his?
He doesn't get it. Nobody puts up a
talk for him. He is looked upon, couldn t
for the life of me tell you why, as a sort of
dormant, inconsderable factor in the DO
litical scheme, and yet 1 would be willing
to go on record as saying that there must
De just as many of him as there are wage
earners, so-called, who see to it that their
wages are raised in proportion to the in
creaSing cost of living
ANY man who knows what he is talking
ABOUT, and who is fair, will tell you that. at
NE me very leaSt' food costs pretty nearly
twice as much in Washington today as It
old a rev years ago. You can take a pad
ana pencil and figure it out all along the
ilne, and you will find that I am right 1
know. because l am a buyer for my family
or seven, as l have been for eighteen or
twenty years. I'm salaried man and NV
salary hasn't been advanced anything
worth even mentioning since the big move
toward the increase in the prices of food
set in 1t used to take all of my salary to
feed and clothe my family and 1 didn't
1eed them eXtravagantly, either.
AS 1t Is now, l simply cannot give them
70
1t isn't in the cards. Ny salary doesn't
permit of it. The increase in the price of
bread means something to me. So does the
prospective Increase in the price of milk
The increase in the cost of beef meant so
much to me that chuck steak became a part
of our bill of fare for the first time in my
married life. I'll bet you a hat, payable in
instruments. that you won't find chuck
steak on the tables of many of these foxy
wage-earners who arrange to have their
wages climb with the climbing prices Of
eatabIes.
1.-THE real middle class of the United
States is the safeguarding class and they
are meeting the fate. or approac ching it
that is usually dished out to the middle
clasS-they are being crushed between two
stones. The rich man doesn't care a fig
now nigh the prices of eatables go-he's al
ways got the money for his table, and
doesn't even feel the advanced prices The
wage-earners watch the climbing prices and
kick for wages to meet them. But the sal
aried men. the fellows with families work.
ing for stationary incomes of $40 or $12 or
SIS week, with no chance in the world to
get bunch in their pay, are the Patsies
who pay the fiddler, so to speak
Hurroo for the Salaried Mems Union,
Let's get together and kick for something,
The only people who get anything, in this
country or any other, anyhow. are the kick
ers, and here's speeding the time when the
flushed spellbnder will put up a hoarse
yawp in behalf of the American salary
Garner as well as of the American wage
earner!'