The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-01-13
Help Wanted" Americas Cry
World Beginning Most Interesting Year in Its History.

newspaper. The first day after the in
seTtion Of the ''ad' there would be from
600 TO SO applicants INSIDE of three days
the extra list would be satisfactorily
filed. This season the advertisement
used every year for the last decade was
inserted How many replies do you sup
pose the firm received2 Six.
Next day the advertisement was in
serted IN three or four other papers. The
gross result from all the advertisements
was twenty-One applicants II took ten
days TO ill the extra Est. and all sorts
of means had 10 be employed Women
acquaintances of the regular clerks had
10 be importuned 90 come IN and help
out. Letters had 10 be written 10 friends
in the suburbs and it was with the great
est difficulty that the extra work was got
out at all. Another unprecedented fca-
ture OF the situation was the ineffiCicnCy OF
the applicants Not more than half Il
dozen of the twenty-one who answered
the advertisements could write a hand
that the head OF the firm was willing to
see on its envelopes.
At frst he thought this meant deteri-
grafton. Later he concluded that most
CT the competent workers Of the class
he wished TO draw from were already en-
ployed regularly, and that none who
wanted work were left except those who
could nos do Il satisfactorily.
Another reason, undoubtedly. Is that In
these days Of work az good wages for
every man who is able and willing 10 do
it, many men are unwilling 10 allow
wives, sisters. and daughters TO work for
themselves. This is often SIS true Of the
man who works for days wages as it is
or any other man, and to-day. in every
great city Of the country, as everybody
knows, there are thousands Of house
wives doing their own homework. their
own scrubbing, and their own washing
because the women they used TO en-
plOy viii not work The "men folk are
doing so well that they VIII not have it,
There are probably fifty barber shops
in New York. whose outfit includes a boot
blacks chair. where the patrons can no
longer get their shoes shined Ask TIA.
boss % such Il shop why he has no one
10 attend to the bootblack's chair. and
he will say; All the boys got steady
Jobs. Won't shine shoes no more"
Highest Wages, Grent Savings.
It is because there isn't help enough 10
go round. despite the million OF more i'm
migrants of 1896. that wages are higher
here than anywhere else. or ever before
so high that in some America cities
bricklayers earn more money lhar pro-
fessoTs in some foreign universities, that
the wages OF the men who put up the
steel frames of skyscrapers are larger
than the salaries of government depart
ment heads in some European kingdoms
Do you doubt this? There are skilled
structural iron men who earn SO a day
at least 200 days In the year. which
counts up $500 more than the s.. POO salary
Of one Of Denmark's most valued depart
mcnt chiefs. There are plenty Of skilled
workmen in the Pittsburg steel mills RlIo
are much better paid than the members
OF the Swedish academies" which await
ed the Nobel peace prize 10 Theodore
Roosevelt last December.
u is these high wages nat enable tie
American with calloused hands and
blackened finger nails 10 send his son TO
college. Consequently more professional
men here than anywhere else are spring.
ing from shOemakeTs and stonsnias1ns
and the Ike-if the sons are ashamed of
this 50 much the worse for them-and. of
course, it's the high wages, largely, that
make the high prices Not altogether,
Ll1DNeAls the ll4Eu llCtS lIE partly que
to the American wOrkman's desire 10 eat
as good food as that which goes upon
the rich mans table,
If the woTkingman didn't continue 70
buy steak in spite Of the rise, do you sup
pose il would sell in New York at from
20 cents to . cents a pound as now. no
matter what the beef trust did? Would
eggs be 3 cents n dozen. as they were
in New York in miG-December, and high
er. as they have been since2
You may not fully comprehend the in
crease that has taken place in wages 10
this country since the low-water mark
Of u few years ago. Nobody does. in fact.
You could get some idea by studying
Bulletin 60. issued by the Department
Of Labor, but Mr. II. c. Watson. OF New
York, a member Of the Civic Federation.
who has given the subject much atten-
ton. puts the case wildly when he saws.
When the army Of the unemployed
was greatest a prominent labor leader
estimated il at 3,0e0,e00 Practically all
the men making up this vast number are
now at work. To get at the true adj
vance in wages you must figure in the
wages, which have grown from nothing
tC from 81 TO 50 a day. Prices have gone
up, but they are still lower than they
were in 1850, and really the purchasing
power Of the workers has grown much
faster than prices have advanced"
There are plenty 10 say. when they talk
about the American workingman's high
living. when they compare his custom Of
eating meat every day in the year. his
good clothes and his cigars with the
cheaper food, the poorer clothes. and the
pipe that must content his European
brother that the American worker is
wasteful and extravagant Well, perhaps.
but have you looked into the savings
banks figures lately?
Not to dive deeply into statistics here.
doesn't it strike you that the American
workingman is doing pretty We'll, in spite
Of the high prices when you understand.
as Mr. Watson pointed out to me. that
in the past ten years the number Of saw
ings banks depositors here has grown
from 5065, 494 20 s,O27, 1872, or abou; Go per
cent? And that, In the same time, the
deposits have increased in amount from
$780, 1921 to 50, 49,, l37. I9S or about 50
per cent? This means, counting five to
the family, that about half the families
in this country have bank accounts aver
aging Si33-S each.
Nor is this all; the savings invested by
10000 individuals in the building and
loan associations count up more than
5000 000.000. 1t is all right 10 admire the
great savings Of the French, accumulated
by dint of economy and elf-denial that
our people could not compass. but. hon
estly, aren't you proud that you live in
a land where, in spite of the high prices.
'he wage esrners have a total Of more
than four billions Of dollaTs-twenty bill
lions % French francs. by the way-ac-
cumulated by their two most favored
methods Of saving their surplus?
Great Cali for Graduates.
You may happen to know some one who
wishes to set work, or seems TO, but cant
get it, and this may have kept you from
approaching the degree to which help
is wanted" in this country Just now.