United labor bulletin., 1910-08-11
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE.
(Bv the Rev. Charles stelzle.)

The cost of living during the past Is
years has been rapidly increasing. In
10 years it has gone up 40 per cent. This
tendency will probably never decrease
very materially While wages have gone
up, they have by no means kept pace
with the living expenses. The increase
in the rate for the skilled workers has
been about 20 per cent, but the wages
of unskilled labor have remained prac'
tically stationary. The greatest expendi-
ture of the average family is for food,
constituting about As per cent. of the
cost of living, and it is in the food prod
ucts that the increased cost has been
greatest The next largest item of ex-
pense is that of rent constituting about
20 per cent, and that for clothing fol-
lowing with about 16 per cent. of the
total expenditure.
We need not discuss the causes of this
increased cost of living. There is very
wide difference of opinion as to the rea-
sons for the increase, and no doubt there
is truth in all of them. But this fact re-
mains-it is costing the average work
ingman more to live today than 1t did
Is years ago, and his wages are not as
great proportionately as they were at
the beginning of this period. If the rate
of production were the one factor at
work, instead of an increased cost OF
living, there should have been decline
in the cost of living of at least 10 per
cent The American workingman is the
most highly skilled workingman in the
world. He produces more than the work
ingmen do in other parts OF the world,
but compared to what he produces, he
is probably the poorest paid working
man in the world.
The question of living wage must
necessarily be a relative term. 1t de-
pends altogether upon the standard OF
living which men set up for themselves.
The living wage of the day laborer
would not be living wage for the aver
age professional man. But. generally,
the term is employed to designate the
amount upon which the average work
ingman and his family may subsist The
average family in New York City can
not live comfortably on less than $500
year. This applies to practically every
other large city. Less than this amount
lowers the standard of living below the
normal demands of health, working efii-
cheney and ordinary decency.
The wages of the average worker in
the United States is s432.20 per annum.
But this includes all wage-earners and
it must be evident that there are large
numbers of workers who receive very
much more than this amount. study
of the earnings of wage earners in Bull
letin No. SO of the Bureau OF the Census
indicates that during the week that the
census was made in 1905, there were
225.793 wage-earners who received less
than So: 264,626 between SO and 81;
340.113 between 81 and S5; S63,693 be-
tween IS and Sc; 454,2S5 between Sc and
81; 53,203 between 81 and IS; and 42S,-
$50 between sS and SO. 1t should be re-
membered that large numbers of wage
earners are not permanently employed
during the year. In many industries the
workers are not employed more than
half the year This applies principally
TO laborers, who are more subject to
casual employment than are the skilled
workers, but even among the trades
unionists about 20 per cent. are unem-
ployed, even during prosperous years.