The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-05-08

Probably the reason why SO many
boys and girls and especially boys drop
out of school in the early teens or III
the high school period is because
neither the boys nor the parents nave
stopped to consider the actual money
value of an education or if they nave
considered it they have not had the
proper facts available and arrived at
the correct conclusion.
The purpose of this article is to
show in concrete way the actual
value in dollars and cents OF each day
spent in school. In the first place all
labor may be divided into two classes,
mental work and manual work. the
classes of mental laborers are, first,
financiers, men who own or control
large amounts of capital. The second
are those engaged in the learned pro-
LESSONS, teachers, engineers, etc.
The third class includes bookkeepers,
clerks, copyists, stenographers and
other such clerical workers. Manual
laborers are: first, farmers, men work
ing at trades, trained miners, machHl-
lists: the second class OF manual lab
orers is the factory employees. The
third class, the unskilled laborers who
do only hard manual labor.
Roughly estimated the number OF
mental workers in the United States
is about three million, while the num-
Der of manual workers is about TWEEN
ty-ive million. The pay received by
these different classes Of workers IS
as follows: First class OF mental
workers receive much greater pay
than any others. The second class
comes next, while the third class OF
mental workers receive pay almost
as low as the unskilled laborers. VI
the manual worekrs the first receive
the highest pay and some of these, as
machinists and trained workers re.
ceive as much pay as some OF those III
the second class of mental workers.
The question at once arises, what
is the cause of this great difference in
pay and why should those doing the
clean less disagreeable work receive
much higher pay than those doing the
hard disagreeable work? The ans
wer lies in supply and demand. Like
al other commodities of economic
value the price is regulated by the de-
mand for the commodity and the sup
Wy available to satisfy that demand.
To illustrate, so long as people are
willing to pay more to hear a great
singer than for having ditch dug, the
singer will receive much higher wages,
and SO long as things must be planned
and plans carried into execution, the
man who is able to demand as much
salary as a score, OF men who merely
do the work. 4
We do not pay for labor, but we
pay for what labor produces. Stats
tics will show that there has been a
steady decline in the value of mere
manual labor BY this we mean labor
which is done with the hands only.
Coincident with the decline in the
value of manual labor has been the
increase in machinery to take the
place of manual labor and the conse.
Quent increase in the value of ma
chine labor. The introduction of ma
chinery has brought about a very
large increase in production, while
this in turn has brought about a con-
tinuous rise in the standard of living.
The necessities of the poorest famil-
les now, were luxuries for the well to
do families fifty years ago. This de-
velopment has gone so far that it has
become vital question whether the
mere manual laborers can earn enough