The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-08-24
ARGUMENT FOR
MINIMUM WAGE
Bic Department Store Owner
Gives His Reasons for
Favoring Plan. l..
NATTER OF COMMON SENSE
Ncf Matter os Justice With Him, but
\ qImtly polIars and cents, and
Nat He Says 10 Well Worth
HeedIng.

/ NaaIment has been made on the fact
tllp lila ordinarily pleas for mini
m3l!H ka&es have come from workers,
du yreeent hearings on the subject
Ibef0E NJ United States senate COM
a1nitkl III layers spoke In favor of
y, n :: sac ef
Rthehl lEWas Edward A. Filene, propfie-
tor a Boston department store.
Here Iare q few significant extracts
fT0h Ais talk. indicating the position
Of thsf enlightened employer with re-
spect ito adequate wages:
"A curious thing about the hearings
on mtnimum wage as / have read
them ts that 1t has always been q plea
for THE work people. Now, we bosses
get just as much from the minimum
wage hs our people do, because $5-a-
week girl makes cheap boss. That
Is literally true. You cannot get real
organization out of people who are
unintelligent, and people cannot be in
telligent who have not enough to live
properly on.
"A working girl, worried about pay
Ing for her clothing and lodging, is not
going to be very ambitious. you know,
to heed the preachments that we
bosses put onto her-burden her with.
She Ia not, as rule, going to have the
ambition to try to learn how to earn
more money. She Is not going to try
to do It. or II she does try she fails.
h "Now, when you get to where the
hard pressure Of mere living-elothing
and food and shelter--disappears, then
you can come to a point where the
possibility of more intelligent action.
more intelligent study, more compre-
hension OF retail distribution. of the
work they have got to do, Is possible.
aWhen the employees have wages so
they will not be entirely taken up with
the questions Of food, of clothing and
Of shelter. which is just as IL you
were all the time feeding coal to a
steam engine and it did nothing but
make steam and never turned wheel
that is what we are doing with our
employses-when we get to that point,
then It becomes true that the better
we pay the cheaper the cost Of selling
becomes, and that Is so true In store
like ours that 1t definitely costs us
half as much In percentage to sell the
amount of goods which gets bonus
for the sales people as the first cost
OF their regular wages.
"The average girl that comes into q
store Is quite able to respond If she is
free from worry. We are trying al
ways. for our own sake, to make our
people more intelligent. We are try
ing to put more scientific methods into
buying and selling. and we need
thoughtful people, but / do not think
there Is any greater discrimination
made under a minimum wage than
there was before. We have q feeling
that we can easily get reasonable
response out Of any girl who Is well
and who Is free from the daily wor-
ries. A decent wage. then, seems to US
the basis OF intelligent work and we
feel that the minimum wage merely
provides the machinery by which joint
action IL secured on the part Of all In
a trade"
| U. 3, TO Help Cheese industry.
Washington. Aug. 14.-Encourage-
ment to the American cheese industry,
which win have to compete against
4OrsssH cheesemakers after the war,
is being given BY the food administtTs-