Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-08-05
PRICES HOLD
PUBLIC EYE;
ASKWAY OUT
Solution in More Pay or
Lower Costs?-$1, 800
Held Living Wage.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Copyright, 1919, by The Argus.

Washington, D. c.. Aug. 5.-The
whole government from President
Wilson and the committees of con-
gress to the various bureaus whose
activities even remotely touch the
cost of living is turned today to the
<problem of wages and living ex-
pNlses. True enough the railroad
shobmen have brought the issue to
a crisis and all sorts of talk is
heard as to the hold up of congress
by labor just as in 1916 when the
railroad brotherhOods compelled
congress to put the Adamson eight
hour law on the statute books but
nevertheless beneath it all is a
realization that the labor question
can be lodged no longer.
There are two schools of thought
those who say Mr.. Wilson's re-
peated concessions to labor have
emboldened the latter and Indirect
ly brought about the high scale of
living and those who argue that
the allied purchases at almost any
price that was asked accompanied
by the abnormal wages paid by
manufacturers to get labor in the
munition plants started the ball
rolling before the United States
entered the war and it has been
kept up ever since largely because
our own participation in the war
prevented any readjustment.
Must Face Cold Facts.
But regardless of where the re-
sponsibility for present conditions
lies. there are some indisputable
facts staring legislators in the face.
These facts are that many work
men in America are underpaid and
the cost of living is not checked.
Not everybody in Washington be-
lieves the solution lies in an in
creased wage. Royal Meeker, Unit !
ed States commissioner of labor
Statistics, has this timely comment
to make in the monthly labor re- |
view out today:
S1,SO0 Is Living Wage.
Family food budgets are
now being analyZed. We can
say with confidence that it re- !
quires today an expenditure of
from so to so cents per man
for food to secure a well bal
anced diet sufficient in the
number of calories and variety.
This means that American
families consisting of husband,
wife and three children below
the age of Is years living in
large and medium sized cities,
must spend about 500 per
annum for food to keep them
selves properly nOuriShed for
health and efficiency. This ex-
penditure for food goes with
incomes from S1.S00 to $3.50
so we may say that American
families on the average are not
fully nourished until their
yearly income reaches $1,S00.
These figures do not indicate
that our people are today suf-
fering from eating too much
meat or even too much food
not so expensive. The average
income and the model income
both fall well below 81 500. The
model is $3.50 and the aver
age is not greatly higher.
Diet Is Restricted.
'"The conclusion must not be
too hastily drawn from these
figures. They do not mean
that our worAng population is
dying of slow starvation. Moth
ing of the sort But they do in
dicate that the workers of
America are obliged to live on
a diet too restricted and mo-
notonous for the maintenance
of as high a degree of efficiency
and health as ought to be
maintained as a reasonable
minimum.
81 am of the opinion that
most efficacious remedy is not
higher wages but rather i'm
proved system of distributing
and marketing foodstuffs and
the education of housekeepers
in the art of keeping house,
with emphasis on diets. House
keeping is not exactly lost
art. 1t is one of the arts that
has not yet been completely
found"
Must Dress Respectfully.
Discussing the subject of cloth
ing as analyzed from the statistical
and other viewpoints, Commission
er Meeker says:
1T is repUgnant to our sense
of right that the working
classes should dress in a way
to set them apart from the
more we'll to do. Few men
and women among the workers
n this country are willing to
appear ia public unless they
can dress near enough to the {
mode or the standard of fash
Continued on Page Nine.) F