Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-11-10
BIG INCREASE
IN ALL WAGES
Most Of the Large Corporations
Are Following the Lead Of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Co.
THE COST OF LIVING THE CAUSE.
Philadelphia & Reading, Standard Oil
Company and the Amalgamated
Copper Company All VIII Pay
More-Othcr Eastern Railroads
Considering the Same Move-The
Wave Sweeps Across the West Also.

wave sweeps AcFOSS tne WeSt hiso
WASHINGTON, d. c., Nov. TO-
The coming Thanksgiving day is like
ly to be a season of especial rejoicing
for the great army of wage-earners
in the United States because of the
general wave of pay increase that is
sweeping across the country.
Already the Philadelphia & Read
ing and Pennsylvania railroads, the
Standard Oil Company and the Anal
gamated Copper Company have made
general increases in the wages of all
men earning less than 5000 per
month, and information was received
here that like announcements are
expected from practically all of the
great corporations in the country.
Even the great steel trust, which
made voluntary advance of wages
to it's 165, 900 men in March last, is
considering further increase, and
the Lackawanna, New York Central
and other eastern railroads have the
matter of increased wages under con-
sideration.
The wave of increase is likewise
rising high in the west. Capitalists
interested in 'stern railroads state
that increases of wages already
granted and in prospect or western
railroad workers this year aggregate
$5,000,00O, while the increases for
the workers on all the railroads in
the United States will reach the ag-
gregate of $S6,0Q0, 900. While the
eastern roads took the initiative in
the matter of voluntary increases,
they are being followed closely by
the western lines.
Forced by High Cost of Living.
This general sweep of higher
wages, however, is not, as some OF
the wage-earners have been led to
believe, a wave of beneficence. 1t
is business and nothing more. The
great capitalists who have permitted
these increases to be made have not
done SO, because they felt a benevo-
lent interest in their men, but be-
cause they recognized that increased
wages were absolutely necessary.
And the necessity is found in the
higher cost of living. To avoid la
Dor troubles, strike disasters, riots
and industrial blockades the corpora
tions have sought to take stitch in
time-to give reasonable advance
in wages all over the country before
the wage-earners, realizing how
much more costly it is to live today
than one, two and three years ago
should demand what in the opinion
of the corporations would be an un-
reasonable advance.
For living is becoming a luxury
nowadays. On every hand prices are
soaring to hitherto unheard-of levels.
Even with the enormous crop produc-
tions of late years food stuffs con-
tinue to rise in price and are now
higher than in fifteen years before.
According to Dun's Index Number of
commodity prices proportioned to
consumption, issued yesterday, the.
average cost was $106,6 683 on No
vember. last. Compared with d year
ago on the same date the present cost,
as shown by the index number, is
SO higher, or over $109 per year for
the absolute necessaries of life for
every individual. And this is based
on wholesale prices for commodities.
1t appear that other things have
risen faster and higher than food
stuffs. Wearing apparel, rents, fuel
and household utensils have become
enormously costly. These are the
things that have more to do with the
increased cost of living than the food
stuffs. But the way the foodstuffs
have gone up in price is startling.
The latest report of the bureau of
labor on the prices of foodstufrs,
which includes the year 1906, shows
that up to that year, during the fif-
teen previous years there had been
an enormous increase in prices, while
all housekeepers know that this in
crease has gone on rapidly in the
present year. The prices given in the
bureau of labor report are averages
The data on which they were based
was obtained in all parts of the coun-
try. Small cities in the midst of ex-
tensive agricultural regions, where
prices are always very low, were in
cluded in the computation with the
great cities of the east, where prices
are very much higher than in the
small cities and where the vast bulk
of the population of the country is