The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-08-30

By CHESTE
written especially for The Labor Worldly
Cost of living-the HIGH cost of living!
That is beyond doubt the greatest domestic
issue in the United States
Cost Of living is being talked about in every
home.
Men either joke or swear about it over their
Women frown and worry over it on every
trip to the store.
Children get poorer shoes, and fewer shoes,
because of it.
Food that once was common has departed from
many tables.
What's to be done about it?
Employers say wages have gone up and that's
why the cost of living has gone up.
There's just little truth in that-possibly 10
per cent Of truth. Many persons have proved
that you can accomplish wonders ON a solution
of 10 per cent truth.
But if the increase in cost of living had been
forced by increase in wages, then it wouldn't
be necessary to raise wages again to meet the
increase in cost of living.
Something has slipped somewhere
The fact is that the cost of living has gone
up much more than wages have gone up.
In a mid-western city milk wagon drivers were
given a raise Of S. per week.
/ Milk was advanced a cent quart. Result:
Each driver took in on his route about three
times the amount of his wage increase through
that extra cent quart The milk company
prolteered.
That is sample of what has happened time
after time.
The price Of one aluminium kitchen utensil was
doubled to meet triding wage increase-and
the workers in increased rates!
One Of the biggest manufacturing retailers in
the shoe business is today charging in New York
$1650 for men s shoes that sold for $3.50 before
the United States entered the war;. This is
raise Of $40 in two years. And most Of the in
crease in price has been added within the last
few months. On July these shoes sold for $14.
To charge this advance to higher labor costs is
out of the question!
There is much ado over the country because
workers keep on asking for more money. They
are called greedy and unreasonable
Careful inquiry shows that it isn't more wages,
! as such, that the workers are trying to get, but
more BUYING POWER.
Less profteering would steady the situation
everywhere.
The other day Warren S. Stone and the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Enqineers' advisory
This statement set forth that there must be either
Reduced living costs, or
Higher wages.
It isn't especially larger number Of dollar
bills that workers want It is dollar bills that
will buy more.
Grand Chief Stone told the President that
whereas S. before the war were worth 500 gents,
today S. are worth only $2.15. He said that
despite the increased wages, the engineers today
actually are earning less than they did before
the war.
"Conscienceless pro6teering by the great inter-
ests, was what Stone told the President. And
w. D. Lee Of the Railroad Trainmen followed by
saying "Thereu be hell to pay unless some
relief is found =,
New York newspaper competitors recently won
an award of a. S. per week wage increase in
arbitration proceedings. Frank Morrison, Sec
retary'of the American Federation Of Labor, was
the arbitrator In his award Morrison said:
Ito ask the printers to continue to accept a
standard of living lower than the publishers
themselves agreed to when they accepted pre-war