The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-10-23

~
clans, who have been watching the
situation closely and critically as the
months of war have passed, agree
with a fair degree of unanimity on
the general effect OF the conflict on
wages paid today and the cost OF hv-
ing. as to whether or not the wnrk-
ing mans pay has increased as fast
as foodstuffs have.
They agree that the men in the
war material trades and the women
for that matter, today are receiy~
ing so, 40 and even 100 per cent
more than they ever did before. In
most cases the advance is nearer
to 100 per cen than so or 20 be-
cause there is no limit to the
amount of work to do, there is un-
limited opportunity for over tune
work, wages are higher than usual
and help is scarce.
In other skilled trades that sup
ply ordinary needs. the printing and
carpenter trade for instance. the ad-
vance it is agreed, is neither SO
great nor so even. The printer is
making from three to five marks a
day more than he used to; the car
penter's gain depends on how much
work he has the strength on incli
nation to do; the brewer is getting
an ever 10 marks more a week; the
Io,,ho. xnrEnr lilo tho nnrnpntnr
can only be gagged by his capacity.
The benefits accruing to the un~
skilled workers simply annot be es-
timated because they are so variable
and so dependent upon employers
generosity, chance circumstances
and the like. The authorities are
agreed that these workers have been
less benefited than any others, but
find it impossible to determine the
degree of benefit.
Alvin Koersten, secretary of the
central employment bureau of the
Berlin trades, who might be termed
a walking statistical office, and who
is constantly in close touch with
workers of all kinds, is positive
that living costs have advanced fast
er than wages, and that the war
materials workers are the only ones
who have kept Up.
He is convinced that foo prices
nave risen from so to 100 per
cent or faster than the wages either
OF unskilled labor or of those branch
es of skilled labor not engaged i'll
making war materials. Though Tar
from being a pessimist, his inciin-
alton is to look at the matter from
the standpoint of the many who nave
had a minimum of gain out of high
er wages.
Max Steffen. head of the huge
employment agency for unskllled Ia
borers, even less than koersten, be-
lieves that prices have outstrlppel
wages, chiefly because he is IN
closest touch with the great mass or
men and women on whom the erect
of the wor has been more to ave
them work than to raise the wage
they had been getting.
He has seen most OF the thou
sands who drift into his enormous
establishment placed where they
can earn a livelihood more readily
than ever before, but he also has
heard from countless lips the story
of the difficulty of making botn
ends meet. His own experiences
with the cost of living has made
him loathe to believe that the war
has been an unmiXed benefit for the
worker who stays at home.
Quite of a different opinion is
DR.. o. Becker, head of the assocla~
ton of German employment bureaus
who forms his opinion from facts
and figures gathered from all parts
of the Gerean empire. and who, in
I ~seque believes that the gen
eral situation of the working NAV
has vastly improved and that his
wages, by and large, have gone up
faster than the cost of living.
In arriving at this decision ne
takes into account the situation Of
the unskilled workers, and in agree
ing with Steffen hat their wage in
creaSeS nave not Deen dppIeclapi!
great, believes hat the more and
more favorable status of the country
worker, in conjunction with the a
pid decrease in non-employment'
over balances higher prices.
The women. far more than the
men, have been the gamers in tne
unskilled trades, and to them, it is
believed, is due the large ana I'M
expected increase in savings deposits
which the banks have recorded A
portion of them, the minority 1t IS
estimated. have, it is true, had to go
to work alongside husbands ana
brothers who are not serving in the
army, but a larger portion are COM
paratively prosperous.
urL;. 30 duo &C KnprStpn EXPLAINS,