Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-05-12
QUESTION FOR TAFT

VII HILE the national government Is
w taking up the question of farm
employment and making an att
tempt to restore the people to the land
as laborers, not owners. what is to be-
come of the unemployed? While wise
acres, philosophers and investigating
committees are finding out facts which
are already ascertained definitely, what
must be done with an ever increasing
part of the population which finds it is
difficult to obtain regular employment
at living wages? Apologists for poverty
in the United States say conditions are
much worse in Europe. That will be
the answer of the Republican SPELL
binder when a citizen invites him to
answer the question which puzzled
Taft. He will not be ingenious and
unguarded enough to blurt out God
knows" On the contrary, he will en-
deavor to impress on you the fact that
he and the Republican party know all
about it, and believe the man who
starves in the United States should
realize he is we'll off, for conditions are
much worse in other countries! Av-
erage wages are less in Europe than
in the United States, therefore the av-
erage wage Garner is better off In the
United States than in Europe! What!
Even when unemployed and getting
nothing at all7
The purchasing power of money is
FOL INT ct aVot hxr
who make international comparisons.
If we take that into account the av
erage worl1ingman in the United
States is not better paid than in the
leading European countries. In Britain,
wages are higher than in other Euro
pean lands, but living expenses are also
higher. A man without eXtravagant
tastes can live in Germany for half
or less than half-the amount he can
live on in England or Scotland. 1t is
not uncommon for poor students in
Germany to live on a dollar a week.
That feat would be impossible in the
United States or in Great Britain.
Operatives In the cotton factories In
Lincolnshire, England. who make from
Sc to So per week, live easily on that
money. AS far as purchasing ability
is concerned they are on an even foot
ing with residents of New York who
earn SIS to s24 per week. Purchasing
power is the measure of value. How
MUCH may a man purchase with the
cash he obtains in return for his labor?
Of course, if like many people in the
United States under Republican rule,
he receives either nothing or no regu-
lar amount he is neither better off nor
worse off than they are. Poverty is
poverty, restitution is restitution,
starvation is starvation, in every
country under the sun. Each condition
is foreign to the spirit of free institu-
lions and the words should not be in
the language.
So here is another question for Mr.
Taft:
While the national government Is
occupying time by taking up the ques-
ton of farm employment, making an
attempt to restore the people to the
land as laborers, not owners, and hold
ing long-winded hearings preliminary
to devising ways and means of restor-
ing the people to the land as laborers.
not owners, what is to become of the
unemployed? The question which is
engaging governmental attention is a
great one and we are glad it has been
taken I'D Better late than never"
But while preliminary Investigations
are being conducted, Will, wiseacres
are exchanging views and nodding
over council tables, what
is to become of the poor fellow who
stands by with his empty dinner pail,
waiting, waiting, waiting?