The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-10-10
WAGES AN ISSUE
Better Pay Fundamental For
Social Betterment.
NUTRITIOUS FOOD NEEDED.

Physical Well Being and Higher Wages
Recognized as Prerequisites Of Great
est Development - MaInutrition Air
Line to Penitentiary.
Seldom has more forcible presen-
tation of the vital Importance of higher
wages been made even before a labor
gathering than was made in Washing
ton before the International Kinder
garten union by Professor Scott Near
ing of the University of Pennsylvania,
says the American Federationist. Wage
earners have long realized the immedi-
ate relationship between wages and
standards of living. Other thinkers
are coming to realize this truth also.
Poor food, insanitary homes, improper
clothing and undernourished bodies
are not always the result of ignorance.
but more often are the result of low
wages. As Miss Julia Lathrop, chief
of the children's bureau, said at the
same meeting, the educating effect of
higher wages is remarkable.
Poor people have poor ways is true
in many senses Their poor ways can
only be changed by securing for the
poor folks the means for having better
ones Physical well being is condi-
toned by the quality and quantity of
food and by healthful environment.
Wages determine the ability to obtain
these necessaries. 1t cannot be stated
too emphatically we are what we eat.
The food we eat furnishes nutriment
for sustaining the health of the bones,
muscular tissues, nerves. 1t makes
the physical machine upon which all
activity is dependent, not only for ex-
istence, but for distinctive character.
The material things of life are not in
ferior to the intellectual and moral,
but are inextricably associated. Nor
is this a grossly materialiStic philoso-
ply, for the influence of the mind and
heart remains just as potent, just as
sacred, just as essential factor in So
cial betterment even when physical
well being and higher wages are rec
ognized as prerequisites to condition
of highest development. The purpose
served, not the origin, determines
value.
Following is an extract of Professor
hearings earnest address:
There is another factor in American
life which tends in many cases to make
children liabilities rather than assets
that is, the wage question. 1t requires
minimum of food, clothing and shelter to
maintain life. These things cost money.
Several social students have recently es-
timated that the amount of money which
they cost in an American city for fam
lily of three children and man and wife
varies from $3.50 to 5000. An examination
of the average rates paid in American in
dustry will show that approximately
three-quarters of the adult males work
ing in the industrial cities and towns re-
ceive less than $3.50 in wages and there
fore presumably less than enough to sup
port a family of three children In de-
cency.
THE bitter cry of the working children
has risen from every factory town, rip
ping great holes in the public conscience,
making action inevitable. Has your heart
lamented over those slaves of the factory
siren? Listen! In the United States there
are thousands and tens of thousands of
children who are habitually hungry. A
recent investigation in Chicago discovered
1900 children of school age who did not
receive sufficient nourishing food. Fur
thermore, many children lack shoes and
clothing; many have no beds to sleep in.
They cuddle together on hard floors. The
majority of the INDECENT children live in
damp, unclean or overcrowded homes that
lack proper ventilation and sanitation.
I'm the entire state of Illinois there are
but 5000 child laborers; in the city OF
Chicago alone, 1900 hungry school chill
dren.
Nor is this exceptional Louise Stevens
Bryant concludes a recent study of under
feeding with the statement, In New
York and other American cities, 10 per
cent of the school population are serious
ly underfed,'
| Hungry children do not make acute
students; starvation is not the royal road
to learning Rather does it lead to mis-
cry, vice, inefficiency and delinquency
Children who travel that road end up in
the liability class. Malnutrition is the air
line to the county house and the peniten-
tiary."