The Cordova daily times., 1917-12-28
WAGES lS REAL H|GH
 BROW STUFF

 recent date prints the following story
 Society at Anchorage, the new gov ernment railway town, has always been in a sad state of uncertainty as towhat particular citizens are entitled to rank as the socially elect but now that the Women's club has declared it's intention to take the matter in hand and arrange 1t on basis which shall be both proper and permanent, there be frank speaking ones who de- clare that a bad situation is due to rapidly become worse
 Of course the matter always was in the hands of the ladies, the mas culine mind in Alaska being Of too coarse fibre to grasp the fine distinc- tions by which social worth is differ entiated
 
 government founded the town those ladies whose husbands draw down The biggest wages from Uncle Sam have shown by acts, If not by words, their firm conviction that they possess a social texture of Efiner grain than ike wives whose husbands emoluments are less considerable. and have uni formIv refused to receive or return their calls. It is probable that the wage basis would have ultimately found tacit acceptance as the guage by which social status is determined, despite the action and influence of the Women's club, if the Engineering commission could arrange fixed and unchangeable scale of wages. The ;Haw of social precedence would then 1become immutable; but under exist ing conditions some of the husbands are advanced to bigger positions car 'ryitg higher wages, while yet others are .occasinally reduced, and natural ly this scrambles the social fabric frighttully. Thus it not fnfrequently happens that ady whose husband is, say, a $3,000 man receives a call from another lady in the same class, but before she can return the call her husbands wages are changed. If the change of wage be an increase il be- comes, ipso facto, beneath her dignity to return the call; whereas if the change Of wages be a reduction, she is in for snub if she presumes to re- turn it.
 A few spasmodic efforts have been made to work order out of the chaos but so far none has got further than the initial stage; and this record of previous uniform failure lends an eager interest to the proposed at. tempt of the Women's club. Possi- ply the most determined previous eff fort was put forth by small coterie or particularly attractive young danes who sought to have personal beauty recognized as the passport to social supremacy, but as most of the town was ineligible, under this plan it was doomed to failure from it's in- ception.
 Another effort of sufficient conse- quence to deserve notice was made later on when a number of Iadie, of good social antecedents in the United States attempted to untangle the knot by advocating a circle to which only
 
 good breeding should be admitted these alone to constitute the real au. thenticated social upper stratum. Singularly, the plan developed imme- 1 diate and overwhelming opposition not only in the high-wage circles but particularly among members of, the old-established families. many of whom have lived in Anchorage since the founding of the town, nearly two years ago and have come to resent the social pretentions of chechacoes, as newcomers are called, almost as much as the latter resent their as sumed superiority and supposed at tempts at patronage.