The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-08-20
BY OCCUPATIONS.

The most erroneous conceptions prevail as to the occupation of the people of the United States The general view seems to be that the common people are engaged in an lndependcnt means of gaining live lihood. whether as small farmers, little business men. small manufac- turers or the like. Only in compa- ratively few sections is this true, and it is only relatively true of any section.
 Thes fact remains that the data collected by census statistics reveal the most important fact that the common people today are mostly salary or wage earners. wage earn CTS for the most part.
 And if we take into consideration the number who have their farms mortgaged, their stores in the hands of banks as secueities, we will dis cover that there are relatively lew "independents" in business or farm, ing at that.
 It is important that we realize the economic texture of our population for otherwise it will be impossible to account for the opinions that are being manifested from time to time
 Figures collected by the govern mcnt show that salaried employees are increasing in numbers; they are increasing in greater numbers thar inc wage carncrs. From 1893 tc 1914 they increased forty per cent thc wage earncrs only sixteen pei cent
 This does not mean that there were more salaricd workers thai wage earners, but that the smaller number of the former showed a de finitely higher ratio increase.
 A salaried man is usually a de voted servant of the firm which em ploys him. He is man speaks o his position, and his business, jus aG if it possessed the same lnteres for him as his employer Yer! often his is tn. brains that reall! keeDs it going, and the employer Il a figur2ho2d as far as the actua opera tiors are concerned, if not a far as the profit-making is con cerncd.
 These salaried workers are oftcl more bitterly hostile to the wag carncrs than the employers an' owners. They cause lots of troubl when they discover that their posi- ton may be endangered by too man concessions to labor, and there 1 l;ttlc hope of the wage workers am the salariod workers ever making common cause.
 Some one has recently referre' 60 the salaried men as the middle men, the real middlemen in the in dustrial scheme. That is not cor reck. They are cimply varnishe workers. Often enough their ser vices in production are as importan cs any labor performed within tn plant, and their ideas. and their con .caption of method have no smal part in affecting productivity. The are not, as so many hold. parasitic a. least a good many of them coul ,ao. De done without unless the bus ,iness was irrcparably to suffer.
 It is worth considering the line o bay TON dcmocration that separate :s an average the wage worker from the salaried man. In 1914 was for the salaried man per annun $l3S6 and for the wage carne S5sO.
 Understanding this ground wor of the masses of the people, 1t l worth while considering the resul upon the popular mind.
 h the first place years ago tn ideal before young men was to De come independent proprietors. ma nufacturers, operators and 60 fort some day themselves. They starte in work with that the goal of thei ambition. Even today a lot of ma gazines and newspapers maintai this as the height of the youths am bition when it Is nothing Of tn kind.
 Nowadays the young man doe no. think of going into business fo