Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1917-12-29
Is The Worker
Patriotic?
By j. ]. Niemann


tenths of the wage earners of this
country receive less than $1,000 a
year. 1t requires at least that amount
to pro7Gde decent living conditions
for the average family of today.
Less than that sum means under
feeding, or insanitation, OF physical
decadence. 1t means a toll levied
upon life and health, which this Ma
tion cannot afford.
The preventable mortality in this
country is greater than the mortality
of war. Science knows that the chief
cause of disease is poverty; that di-
sease can never be eliminated as
long as people are forced to live
poorly and close together.
1t is a well known fact that the
great mass of the American people
have not in reality shared in the
prosperity of the country during the
war period. Wage increases have
been insignificant in comparison
with the rise in prices in every neces-
sity of life. In turning the money
he. has made into food, fuel rent,
clothing, and so forth, the average
man has found that it would not go
as far as in times when his earnings
were much smaller. Some say under
such circumstances justice in taxa
tion means that it shall have the
same effect upon the conditions of
life of the people who pay it. Let
US demand that taxes shall be laid
upon the possessors Of vast incomes
and the receivers of excess profits to
a point where they feel the sting of
sacrifice, before they are levied upon
the man whose every dollar is needed
to maintain a decent standard of
existence for himself and family. 1t
is just, indeed, to conscript these in
comes. The Nation does not borrow
men for war; it takes them. Surely
money is not to be regarded as more
valuable than manhood, property
more sacred than persons. Morality
and religion are but words to him
who fishes in the gutter for means
of sustaining life, and crouches be-
hind barrels in the street for shelter
from the cutting blasts of winter
night.
We read so much about homes
being broken up. According to bull
letin recently issued by the Equit-
able Life Insurance Co. there are
twenty-five million men in the United
States between 18 and A years of
age, and of these, ten million are
bachelors. The years from Is to 44
represent the period in which marriage
normally occurs, and yet nearly one
half of the American men of this
age-group are not married. These
men are not bachelors from choice,
but because living is so expensive in
this country, and incomes so relative
ly uncertain that marriage has be-
come a luxury whose sheer cost
causes many prudent men to hesi-
tate. The Chicago Herald, in COM
menting on this alarming situation,
says: 'In order to assure their own
prosperity, the governments must
conspire to arrcnge economic affairs
in such way that reasonable men
and women may marry without
financial fear" Somebody is begin
ming to see that they are starving
the geese that lay the golden eggs.
Something is breaking up the home,
and doing thorough job of it, too.
Ten million American homes that
might have been, but could not be,
because greed has taken such heavy
toll from American labor that ten
million American workingmen Of
marriageable age have found them
selves unable to meet the expense of
maintaining homes! Go into any of
our large cities, and walk up one
street and down another, and you
will find miles of houses bearing the
sign, "Rooms for rent" This means
two things. 1t means that the oc-
cupants of those houses are unable
to live upon their incomes, and must
exc out their meager earnings by
sharing their habitations with others.
And, far more serious than this, it
means, that millions and millions of
American men and women have no
L
each in little room in strangers
house. The barrenness of such life
is known only to those who have
lived it; and yet, if present condi-
tions continue, the day is near at
hand when this class will be in the