The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1917-04-06
Bonus System Would De-
stroy Wage Scale.

| increases, says FreSluent w mite, OF
the United Mine Workers of Amer
lea, who makes this interesting
statement.
when the war boom began,
more than year ago, and the de-
mand for men became greater than
the supply, every large employer
In the country realized that wages
would have to be increased. Many
employers paid the increase as
matter of course Others with an
Ieye to the future decided to grant
the increases In such a manner as
would permit them to be withdrawn
as soon as the end of the war or
some other development offered an
excuse. In spite of the permanent
increase In the cost of living, they
wished to prevent any permanent
increase In the standard of wages.
They knew that any fat wage In
crease would have to stand, The
day has long passed when wages,
as such, can be reduced. But bon
uses are different matter.
So group of men In New York
and New England got together and
launched quiet but active and eff
fective movement among employers
! They called conference and
marked the invitations 'confden-
tial. They even gave anonymous
! interviews to the New York Times
and other newspapers In which they
: pointed out that wages once raised
could not be reduced at the will of
. the employers, and that increases
granted at this time must not be
given in such a way as TO let the
5 men feel that they were given in a
form that would make them legal
) right.
Therefore, urged these employ
ers, any increase given to the men
should be paid in the form of bon
I uses, with the understanding that
{ the extra payments represented
only the generosity of the employer
r and bis eagerness to share a tenn
porary prosperity. With this maze
} clear to the employe, they explained
it would be easy to reduce or cut
off the bonuses at any time, because
the employe would be made to look
upon the extra money as a free
will offering, over and above fair
wages.
1T was an excellent scheme for
defeating permanently higher
standard of wages and converting
the upward movement into a tenn
porary handing out of philanthropy
which could not be claimed as a
right and which could be discon-
tinued without provoking protests
or strikes. And the scheme has
been successfully carried out by
many an anti-union employer who
dealt with helpless, unorganized
men-men who have to take what
Is given them and let the future
take care of itself.
And today some members of
the United Mine Workers are being
asked to take part of their wages
in the form of bonuses, certain en-
ployers hoping thereby to ward off
any demand can neither be warded
off Dor denied, If the miners exer-
else their good judgment as intelli-
gent union men and refuse any and
all specious substitutes for the
permanent, substantial increases to
which they are entitled.
DO the coal miners want In
creases which are substantial and
permanent, increases which they
claim as a right and which they
can protect by their own organized
power? Or will they play into the
hands OF the relatively small num-
ber of employers who are striving
to keep the level of wages just
above the starvation line, and who,
to accomplish their purpose, pro-
pose to make any increase given al
this time only temporary by at.
tsching string to 1t and holding
one end of the string?
Fair wages and the bonus sys-
; tenn never did and never will travel
together for any distance. Once
let our members form the habit OF
watching the bonus and neglecting
| the wage scale, and that scale will
not only not advance, 1t will begin
to recede. The miner will then find
himself dependent on something
over which he has no control, the
giving or withholding of charity