The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1919-10-30
| letters from the eople

dollars and cents are simply the me-
dunn of exchange from the producer
of the things he reeds to him self,
and it is how many hours labor he
must perform to procure these things
and not the dollars and cents he must
pay that interests him most. To make
my point clear and strong I will go
back a half a century and then take
my grandfather's words, that carry US
back the other half century. He told
me, when I was little boy, that when
he was young man he worked six
teen hours day for three months
(124s hours) to pay for his first over
coat. Put that is your cigaret and
smoke it while you young men of to-
day, who will turn up your noses at
anything less than so cents per, with
time, and one-half for Saturday after
noon and double time for Sunday!
When my father was a young man
he could have earned enough in two
months to buy him an overcoat, and
he probably didn't have to work over
ID hours day, or 72S hours.
That was 70 years ago. Forty years
ago was working for the c. M. & st.
P. railway Co. at $1.50 per day as car
penter's helper. My board and lodg-
ing cost Sd per week so I had SIS per
week left and / bought my first over
coat for $40, or one months wages
240 hours. My son today is driving
truck for a lumber company at 62k
cents per hour, time and half for
over time and double time for Sum
day. He can buy a dandy overcoat
every ten days of hours each and
have enough left to pay his board and
washing. :,
Forty-five years ago my mother
bought her first sewing machine for
$85. Had she been working out to
pay for it, she could have gotten
about ST. per week; not over $1.50, and
she would have had to work about Is
hours day for at least 81 weeks or
1885 hours to pay for it. Today a
working woman working at common
labor can buy the best sewing ma
chine on earth for 200 hours labor and
have enough left for board and lodg-
ing. =
But, you say, shoes are awfully
high. You are right. They are about
six inches too high from the ground
up to the foot and plenty high from
the foot up. If my grandmother had
wanted a pair like that-which don't
think she debut if she had, she
would have had to work about 200
hours to get them. If my wife wanted
them Il am glad she don't) she could
get pretty good pair of them, a
good, sensible pair to stub around
home with, a pair or two for each one
of the kids and nice pair of slippers
with a silk bow and a gold plated
buckle on them for me with the same
amount of labor.
Yes, ham is around SO cents a pound
and eggs about seventy cents dozen
I have seen ham sell for three cents
a pound and eggs for six cents pei
dozen. There were not many farm.
ers riding in uoamtm.doT ityo. h$ynt
ers riding in automobiles those day.
or poultrymen going to Europe tx
spend their profits. Yet those thing
do cut quite figure in the h. c. l., fol
we all like hannah and they are goo'
for us. 1t might take little more la
Dor today to buy pound of ham o
dozen eggs than it did four year
ago, but Isdoubt that.
[ landed with my family of sever
. including myself, in one of the lumbe
!, towns of north Idaho, March LIST, 1919
i had worked at carpenter work 3
| years of my life and when all els
failed I always fell back on that
There were only three buildings bull
in that town that year. | worked ey
cry day I could find work. When
couldn't get 81 day land | only go
one day at that) T. took So and eve
$3.50 on one job. There were week
when I could not get l., hours wor
to do and there was Une time when
was said to be the cnl~ carpenter j
II tnv-r working. There were dozens Q
llc: ces passing our house every da!
begging for ard-out-anything-
potato and a couple of matches,
make fire to cook the potato. Their
were 10000 idle men in Spokane. !
II man at Portland told me that carper
tiers were glad to get days work 9
SITS day. A friend in Eugene, Ore
II wrote me that he had had only on
II job during the season and he had t