The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915, 1914-06-04
THE LESSON OF THE MINI
MUM WAGE LAW FOR
WOMEN.

That immortality" is an inevitable
consequence of inadequate wages;
that crime and prostitution are the
natural results of poverty and ignor.
nance, are truisms, No one of any
consequence would undertake to dis.
prove such obvious facts. We assume
that no one who is not monster of
selfishness would gladly see the WON.
anhood and girlhood of this state slav-
ing their lives away for the employing
class at less than living wage.
But the capitalist system is replete
with contradictions. Business is not a
religious service. Oh, no. Business
is business" and under this cruel and
wholly immoral phrase turks a smil-
ing devil, the embodiment of greed
Not that the individual business man
is wholly bad, or even bad at all. The
employers of women are often just as
much victims of capitalist immortality
as are their victims.
The capitalist is forced by the re-
lentless competition incident to cap
italism to buy his labor power as
cheaply as his rival can in a distant
locality. How can Washington capt.
talist can fruit on nihe-dollar wage
scale and sell it in the open market
in competition with his rival in an
other state who pays five dollars for
the same service?
The opponents of legally enforced
minimum wage scale are justified in
their contention to this extent. "Busi-
ness is business" and business is hell.
So it can only breed hellish conditions.
You can't gather grapes from the
thistle of capitalism. You can't re-
form system and make it good and
beautiful when it is basically and in
herently bad and ugly. II you patch
it up here il breaks out there. Dam
up the stream of its evil in one place
and it bursts forth with redoubled de-
structiveness some where else.
So we are not surprised that Com
missioner E. w. Olson. OF the state
bureau Of labor, is alarmed at the very
forces the would-be reformers have set
loose. Says he:
Commissioner OIson's Remedy.
eff by establishing minimum
wage the working women and girls of
the state receive more pay, as it is
the popular desire they should, there
will inevitably develop a tendency on
the part of employers to replace the
higher priced girl and her products by
labor and products that can be Sc
cured more cheaply. This is the nat
ural result of direct and keen compe-
tition with the great starvation wage
sweatshops of the East, which are
constantly placing their products on
Washington markets.
Therefore, something must be done
to counteract this tendency, and there
by insure the working women their
positions at the higher wages which
it is desired to create through the
establishment of minimum wages.
"This counteraction must come
through the people themselves, and I
am able TO see only one method by
which it can be brought about: The
purchasers Of products OF the indus
tries that are now employing women,
and which it is desired shall continue
to employ them at the higher wages,
must deliberately elect to purchase
the products of industries and the
wares Of establishments that pay the
higher wages. If the working girls
and women are to profit by the admin
istration Of the minimum wage law,
somebody must contribute by some
means that profit"
But Will II Work?
There you are. The average cost of
labor power must inevitably determine
the average price Of labor's products,
and these products will be bought
where they can be obtained at the
lowest price The dear people will not
voluntarily tax themselves directly on
their supplies in order to raise arti-
ficiany the cost Of labor power in
their beloved state For they, too,
are victims of the impracticable cap
italist system, having themselves,
most of them, labor power to sell. 1t
is nip and tuck to keep up appear
ances," whatever ones station in
life" happens to be. SO it is evident
that the reformer is moving in vic
ious circle.
The women ought not to be asked
TO work for less than decent living
wage on the basis Of an eight-hour
work-day. And the thrifty citizen who
must needs maintain himself as
profit-monger or join the growing