Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-08-05
The Cost of Loving Problem
From the MINNEAPOLIS Tribune.


| The cost of living affects directly every
person in the. United States. 1t is very
| worrisome problem now despite rising level
| of wages and salaries and despite the fuller
employment of all kinds of labor and talent.
| The meat of the trouble is that the purchasing
power of the dollar has gone down faster and
further than income has gone up. In other
words the increase in pay has not kept pace
with the increase in prices of necessities.
This condition affects adversely the sal
aried class as well as the wage Garner. 1t
is hurtful in monetary way to considerable
percentage of manufacturers. merchants and
persons engaged in other business activities.
In short, it presents problem in class by it.
self as to the number whose interests it touches
vitality.
In an unusual and somewhat startling way
the advisory board Of the Brotherhood of Lo-
connective Engineers has brought the matter
abruptly to the attention Of the president, and
through him to that of the cabinet. The board
appeals to the president for measures of relief,
accompanied with warning that if ameliora-
tive results are not brought about in something
of hurry, the, brotherhood will be forced to
the expedient of demanding another wage in
crease. Past experience warrants the state
ment that behind this warning lies strike
threat. In the case Of the Brotherhood of Rail-
way Trainmen, another big organization, its
executive head as much as says there will be
strike Of that body of railroad employees if the
government QOeS not RAISE wages Ut lOWcI tIc
cost of living before October /.
Presumably the board of the engineers went
directly to the president because the railroads
of the country are still under government ad-
ministration, but it would seem that common
courtesy, to say nothing of thoughtful re-
gard for the great masses OF the American peo-
pie would have prompted the inclusion of con-
gress, as we'll as the cabinet, in the appeal con-
sidering the responsive relationship of congress
to the people
The president, if he would might insist that
the railroad administration heed the appeal of
the engineers by raising their wages He might
spur the War department to hasten the selling
of surplus military supplies to the people below
market quotations in an effort to lower the
general level of prices. He might set the De-
partment of Justice vigorously to work after
vulnerable profiteers with the same end in
view, but it would seem that any measures
competent to bring universal relief-if such
measures be feasible at al-must come from
congress, whose business it is to legislate for
the best interests Of the whole body of Amer
lean citizenship. Congressional action would
not estop state and municipal governments
from taking such action as they might see fit
in their own jurisdictions to punish profiteer-
ing and to reduce commodity prices.
If the wages of hundreds of thousands Of
railroad employees are advanced, freight and
passenger rates in all probability would have to
be increased again to meet the labor payrolls
i TIC cHtld COSk III SuCil SdSCS 10 pdooSu dlOiS
to the shipper and ultimately to the consumer,
with the result that the latter would be worse
off than ever. The engineers plea to the presi-
dent takes cognizance of this fact, but not in as
handsome manner as might fairly be expected
from an organization of its kind.
If there is to be undertaken any government
effort to tighten "the struggle for existence"
there should be neither thinking nor action in
terms of particular class organization save
as it is directed against those who, by combna-
ton or otherwise, whether producers, manu-
facturers or distributors, may be guilty of I'M
considerable profiteering and thereby have
forced prices of necessities arbitrarily beyond
the point of tolerance.
The problem is too far-reaching to approach
it or deal with it in any artificially circum-
scribed way. Railway men of the big brother
| hoods are better off today than most Ameri-
can wage earners. This is not to say that they
have no ground for complaint of existing con-
ditons but it is to say that it is not up to the
administration or congress to single them out
for preferential treatment The rest OF our
100000 population is to be considered
equally in any government movement to give
income a respectable margin over necessary
outlay in the great and honorable business OF
making living and saving something for
| ranty or unproductive days.
! There is in the present situation a great
temptation to play politics on the eve OF an
| other presidential and congressional election,
| but woe to them who may yield to it and seek
! to make mere partisan capital out of the cost
| of living problem.