South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-03-17

2 up the troops in the front line.
library interesting documents show
ing results of Investigations Of Euro
pedn costs of living. In Chemnitz
in 1910 it was costing a family Of
six persons between seven and eight
dollars a week for food, including
beer TO the extent OF so cents. Meat,
fish, and sausage aggregated two
dollars and a quarter.
These figures represented the
plane of living Of a high-salaried
workman, very much better than
the average. Eggs cost at the rate
of 25 cents for Il and coffee was
% cents a pound He used butter.
cheese, milk and bacon, and grew
some Of his vegetables in his gar
den. Sometimes the family ate
horseflesh.
Food and rent together cost him
more than SO a week. For coal he
paid over Sc a ton.
His income tax-and it was
time of peace, member-amount-
ed to about $50 TO the state and
municipality together, while his 9TH
er taxes were between ten and fif-
teen dollars.
After paying for his living and for
such meager amusements as he
found in an occasional visit 10 a
cheap show or concert. or perhaps
trip with his family 10 the park
] L. Ii
Every document I found, and
every statement made TO me by
Americans who had managed great
plants i'm Europe or had labored
there, utterly disproved the theory
/ that European wages were relatively
as high as American. For the aver
| age man TO get ahead financially iu
Germany was practically impossible.
Certainly we don't propose 10
have in this country any form Of
government cOnuributory TO the
grinding down Of our people TO the
state o. hopeless submergence.
Now glance at Vienna, where
women were hodcarriers when the
war began-and had been i'll along.
1 saw them myself carrying bricks
up long ladders, and / was shocked
at the sight.
In Vienna the skilled artisan
J usually lived in a couple of rooms
several floors up, on an income that
did not exceed SO or 81 a week.
/ Most of these wOrkmen had fair
sized families, and for a group Of
five or six the food cost alone was
around $3.50 a week; and even then
| they sacrificed eggs and butter, and,
to a large extent, meat All the rest
of the income ordinarily was eaten
Iup by the rent. leaving nothing for
I clothing and general expenses. and
/ it was the custom for these fam
/ lilies to take in unmarried men as
| dodgers. With the stipend thus re-
! ceived, and at a sacrifice OF all APP
proach to domestic comfort. it was
/ possible TO keep away from abJect
poverty.
In Vienna plasterers earned S1.1O
a day. and plumbers S1.20; painters,
l$1.25 or less; pattern makers, $3.50
/ a week; leather workers. toy max
/ ers, bone workers, musical instru-
ment makers and tailors, 81 to IS
a week. Blacksmiths earned IS a
week: brewers and millers IS TO 80;
shoemakers in factories. So to 81.
These, remember, were skilled
workers There were swarms Of
unskilled hands laboring from Il TO
u hours a day for wages that ranged
/ from 60 TO 80 cents.
might 60 on citing these figures
indefinitely. The evidence is oNer-
risen so far above such industrial
conditions that we can not compare
them The American workman, as
a class, mas asserted himself. claim
| ed his rights. and proclaimed him
self a man. There are industries
of course, where conditions are not
all they ought TO be. but even here
the same truth holds goods. How
ever downtrodden any workman
may consider himself in this coun-
I try. he is a free man as compared
with the lower industrial workers Of
Germany and Austria. His oppor-
tunities to get out OF bondage are
almost unlimited here, and depend
on his determination 20 study and
make himself capable Of better
things. over there. workmen are
up against caste and customs and
/ against laws that are wellnigh in
surmounrable.
Let Us decide. then, once and for
IaI. that we aren't going 10 have
American industries Germanized.
Marion high school children.