The Colorado statesman., 1917-05-19
WAGES LOSE IN RACE
Fail to Keep Up With the Advance
in Food Prices.
Uncle Sans Figures Show High Cost
Of Living Cut Workers Pay 16
Per Cent in Nine Years.

If dollars worth of food, bought
in 1907, weighed the market basket
down ten pounds, In 1916 that dollar
purchased only trifie more than sew
en- pounds. The retail prices of food
jumped 30 per cent in 1916, as COM
pared with 1907, according to the in
vestigations of the bureau of labor sta
tistics in Uncle Sans department of
labor.
Despite an average increase of 10
per cent in wages per hour in the same
period, and reduction in hours
worked of 4 per cent, the rising cost
of foods has operated to cut the pay
of the American workingman about 10
per cent expressed in terms of food his
wages will buy. A workingman who
made three dollars day in 1907, work
ing ten hours, in 1916 worked nine
hours and 36 minutes day and drew
S3.4S for it; but it cost him SALT to
buy the same quantity of food his $3
would cover in 1907; so he really was
60 cents worse off.
The bureau of labor statistics gath
ers figures from 4S leading cities of
the United States, on union scales of
wages, and from 46 cities on food
prices. In these cities live about one
fifth (twenty million) of the nations
people. The wage returns come from II
groups of organized workers. These
figures are taken from two bulletins,
giving scales of wages and hours of
labor, and retail prices of food. Index
numbers, percentages showing proper
tionate rates of increase or reduction,
are shown for each year.
A vital fact should be considered,
however, says a report of the bureau.
"Ihose figures do not account for idle
time. Until recently the department
could not get satisfactory figures on this
point. But it is n matter of common
knowledge that jobs now are chasing
men. In 1907 there were no jobs to
dodge. The land was crowded with
idle men. AT a conference of workers
held mt the department of commerce
and labor in 1903 to discuss the prob
lem of unemployment, Samuel Com
pers, president of the American FEEDER
alton of Labor stated that "since oc-
tober, 1907, nearly 100000 workers
We're out of jobs" who had been work
ing steadily prior to that time. Other
estimates placed the number of men
then idle at from three to four millions,
Nowadays every man who wants work
can find it, and that is very impor-
tant fact.
"To make the difference in living
costs palmer, take the experience of
Denny O'Neill. Denny worked on the
railroad in 1907 for S1.40 day of ten
hours. Denny is steady man and he
kept his work right along. He got $40
II week in 1907. Denny's pay now-on
the averages found by the department
of labor, is $9.T5 week. He works
about twenty-odd minutes less each day
than he did. In 1907 Denny paid five
dollars a week for food. So Denny's
living was actually cut during these
nine years of rising wages. He loses
60 cents a week, not counting rent,
which has not changed for Denny, nor
counting clothes. which cost him more.
'The averages of food and of pay
qualified by reductions in hours worked
rose at about the same rate from 1912
to 1915, so that during that time wages
would pay for about even quantities
of food each year. Actually, workers
enjoyed better conditions in 1915 than
in 1912, because they had more and
steadier work But war losses got into
the equation in 1916 and pushed up
food prices faster than wages.