The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1914-02-05
WAGES AND THE HIGH COST
OF LIVING.

going on regarding the relation of
wages of girls and women to the white
slave traffic, the fact has been clearly
demonstrated that the high cost of
living" is not. in itself, problem for
wage workers to worry over. Reduc-
ton of the high cost of living is strict
" a problem which concerns employ
ers of labor, purchasers of labor-power
1t is not. primarily, an issue for those
who have labor-power to SELL. The
workers are robbed not when they
SPEND their wages, but when they
RECEIVE them.
If the commodities sold to the work
ers. namely, the necessaries of life,
were to cost the average wage-worker
fifty dollars a week, then fifty dollars
a week would be the average weekly
wage of the average wage-slave. or
course. some workers would get more
than this average necessary wage, and
others less. 1t would be just the
same, however, if the "cost of living
should be reduced to one dollar
week. In many cases the workers
would have to go on strike to get
the one dollar. Professor Lickspittle,
of Harvard, would soon be out with
authoritative statistics" showing that
eighty cents per week is ample wages
for a careful worker" who doesn't
waste his earnings on five-cent thea
ters, Sunday street car rides to the
park. helping unemployed comrades, or
sick neighbors, or patronizing cigar
stands or booze counters. Yes, all
such extravagances should be avoided
and the nickles put away toward "a
reward of abstinence" fund. Then the
prudent and provident worker could
start on his way upward to captain of
industry and Sunday school superin-
tendent with a side-line of charity.
Any one who has followed the in
vestigations of girls wages in Illinois,
Oregon, and Washington, and else
where, need seek no further for abund-
ant evidence in support of the Marx
ian thesis, namely, that "the same
laws which universally regulate the
price of commodities, regulate, of
course, wages, the price of labor" or
labor-power. Moreover, to quote
Marx again. 1.-THE fluctuations of
wages correspond in general with the
fluctuations in the price OF. commodi-
ties" In short, the cost of labor
power, wages, sis the cost required
for the production of a laborer and
for his maintenance as laborer."
The cost of living, then;~is precisely
what determines the amount of the
workers wage per day. The competi-
tive struggle for jobs (or life) waged
by the ever-present unemployed, helps
to determine just what the bare cost
of a wage-slave's living is. The tend
ency of the starving and homeless I'M
employed to accept wage that is
actually below the cost of workers
maintenance as a temporary make
shift. is partly offset by organization
of the employed workers into craft
and industrial unions, whose weapon
is the strike. If the strike is for mere
" a raise of wages equal to the dimin-
ishing value purchasing power) of
gold (hence of silver, it will usually
be successful If the strike is for
wages ABOVE the average cost of the
workers maintenance and the repro
duction of more wage-slaves, it will
generally fail.
Although the MARKHAM economics
are repudiated by the University of
Chicago professors, and Mr. Gompers,
we find the State Street Retailers AS
ISOLATION Of the Windy City applying
the principles of capitalist political
economy exactly as formulated by the
great German scholar. Not being col
lege professors, nor labor misleaders, |
we find the prosaic, hard-headed mer-
chants making no pretence that
wages are the workers share of the
commodities which he has produced" "
No, they boldly confess that wages
paid by them represent the market
price of labor-power in the Chicago
labor market, as determined by the
cost of it's production and mainten-
ance. There was no question as tol
how much of the $7,OOO,OOO earned"
by one mail-order house in Chicago, I'M
1912, belonged, of right TO the wage
workers whose arduous labors pro
duced this colossal wealth.
The manager of one of the smaller
mail-order houses, whose earnings run
ND to about s2,S76.OOO a year when
asked by a hypocritical investigating
committee If they could not "afford"
20 pay more wages, on the average
,ban tbev did reminded the commits