Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-10-30
BROKE IN A MONTH.

DNOhG G 1h NNo4N He
 The steel strike has failed and the workers who went out at the call of their leaders, "prematurely," as Gompers himself declared, are going back to work.
 One strike leader admits the strike has been lost. Another says that mo matter if we have lost we haven't lost" or words to that effect, pro- ceeding to reason that the strike has taught the steel workers that the corporation lis not bigger than the men working for it." and that there fore it hasn't been a failure. This man, Fitzpatrick by name, says the steel workers were starved back t. work"
 In certain sense, he is right. If the steel workers hadn't gone back to work they soon would have been without money to provide for the necessities of life. And it isn't be- cause they are poorly paid, because they are not poorly paid. The thing that MT. Fitzpatrick didn't mention as a reason for the return of the strikers is this: A great majority of these men had been spending the money they had received, on autos, fine clothes and the like. They were living beyond their means and were "up to their necks" when the strike was called. Unaccustomed to having great amount of surplus funds, they, like thousands of others in the United States, are plunging in luxur- ies and despite the high wages they receive are no better off than they were before the period of high wages set in.
 Ninety per cent of the workers who have suddenly found themselves get ting wages they did not dream of a few years ago are living beyond their means. If the United States could weather the coal miners strike for a month, the chances are that the coal miners would be back on the job too. More than any other class they have been plunging on things they didn't need, buying expensive clothes and cars and sending their wives and children on long summer trips. If the railroad men were to go out for month the chances are they would be in the same fix in almost the same length of time. This applies to ev- cry worker, organized or morgan ized. There is not 10 per cent of them that can weather a month or more of idleness. And incidentally this situation is what has produced the high cost of living which the union leaders say the government is unwilling to force down. No mat ter what an article costs, the mer- chant can sell it these days. This is because there are hundreds of work CTS who have the money with which to pay for it, money which they are willing to spend lavishly because it is EASY MONEY. They never re- ceived it before, they receive it now for doing the same work they did before. It's velvet" and they don't know what to do with it, so they give it to any merchant who is will ing to take it and the merchants of this class are rather numerous.
 Not only is the laboring class ns people so affected by big money. All of us are.
 There isn't one man in a hundred in the United States who is solvent, if he had to have a financial show down. There isn't one in 10 who is living within his means. There isn't one in 10 of us who isn't paying whatever is asked, buying whatever we desire to buy.
 This is what makes S20 shoes, $9O suits, $50 shirts, 15 cent shoe strings and the like. This is why month of idleness would break most of us.
 If the people in the United States who are kicking about the high cost