Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-12-06
Four Minute Talks
BY WILLIAM II. BAwDEN
SALARIES.

SALARIES.
Oh, how the salaried man must
hate the Kaiser that waSi The un-
Iprecedented destruction of things ma
terial, of material wealth, that con-
tinued for five years, has had more
to do with the high cost of living than
any single other thing. And 1t was the
former Kaiser who set the ball roll
ing.
In the merry-go-round of higher
wages and higher cost of living the
ordinary workman and the skilled la
borer have had the advantage over
the sa1aried man. The work simply
must be done, no matter at what cost;
and labor has been more than well
paid. But the poor salaried man has
been between the upper n neither
milestone, and has had the life well
nigh crushed out of him.
True, there have been many excep-
tons to the rule, and many a salaried
position has carried with it increase
necessary to match the increased cost
of living. But W. classes of public
servants stand out prominently as no
exceptions to the rule, despite the
many attempts, more or less success
full, to boost salaries. Teachers and
ministers have suffered most of all and
many of them cruelty. Less than ten
per centum of the misisters of all de-
nominations in the United States have
had an increase of salary during the
past five years. The results are to be
seen on every hand. Teachers and
ministers by the scores and hundreds
are resigning their positions and leav-
ing entirely their profession, to ac-
.cept the many n more lucrative po-
.Sitions that are open to men and wom-
EN- of ability.
During the past five years the cost
of living has mounted until today it
costs more than twice as much to live
as it did before the war. Food, cloth
ing, rents, to mention the three stap-
les. with everything else as well, cost
now more than twice as much as prev
iously-there Is no escap from 1t for
anybody. Put in another way, this
simply means that the board of edu-
cation hat is paying it's teachers the
same amount as five years ago is prac-
tically, paying them just half what
they did five years ago, since the value
of the dollar has diminished by more
than half during that time. The
church that is priding itself on pay
ing IT'S pastor as much as it did five
years ago is really only paying him
half what it did five years ago, the
purchasing power of the dollar having
diminished by that much during the
period.
If the boards Of education five
years ago., or the churches, had pro-
posed cutting the salaries Of teachers
and ministers in half, they would nave
been thoroly ashamed of themselves,
and could not have withstood the
public pressure against them to the
contrary. Yet the majority of our
boards of education, and the majority
of u churches Of all denominations,
today calmly persist in a policy that
practically amounts to Just that.
Aaginst every board of education,
against every church, that has not
doubled the salary of teacher and
minister during the past five years
rests unenviable distinction of cutting
down the salary of their faithful ser
wants by just so much. Never very
we'll paid at best, receiving in manXin
stances what could hardly be called a
decent living, let alone a salary, and
yet expected to be the leaders in the
community in every movement for
better things always willingly assum-
ing their share In every drive that
has come along, they have been per-
mitted t~otstagger along under crush
ing burdens, while the world goes I'M
needing by.
"O~Lord. how long?"