The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-01-28

says that even his negro cook is
threatening to quit his service, and the
salary of $50 a month which he pays
her, because she has heard that the
government is going to pay charwomen
81 800 year.
Furthermore, the senator says that
this whole comparison of the salaries
paid 100 or so or even so years ago is
unfair, because the grade of work done
by the few government employees then
was much higher than the grade of
work done by most of them now. He
says that in 1851, for example, there
were only LOO persons in the govern
ment service in Washington Nearly
every one of these was brain worker
Now we have just a few brain workers
supervising great number of clerks,
who merely hammer typewriters and
punch adding machines. Much book
keeping which was then done by hand
IS now done by machinery. In a word
the average employe then was neces-
sarily worth more than the average en-
ploye today
Furthermore, taking the ye8 1898 as
basis of comparison, he shows that
employees in many departments are re-
ceiving more now than they did then
Z per cent more in one case Is per cent
more in another case, and q per cent
more in a third.
He also asserts that the only fair
way W compute lIlt lllCIGdS6 is TO take
the amounts paid for identically the
same kind of work For this purpose
he takes the case of those doing typ
ing, stenography, filing and like work
He shows that between 1914 and 1918
the rewards of persons doing this kind
of work for the government went up on
an average from 1858 year $1,267 a
| year, which is an increase of about 25
| per cent.
! The answer of the government en-
ployes to all this is that the cost of
living has more than doubled since 1898,
and it Increased about 70 per cent be-
! tween 1914 and 1918. Thus to take the
senator's fairest case--that of the
stenogs who rose from about 5000 to
| about 81 200 in four yearS-they actually
lost about As per cent Of their salaries
| in the four years, so far as purchasing
power is concerned. The 81 200 in 1915
was worth only about as much as $70C
j in 1914. And that is not much for any
one to live on.
The senator frankly admits that in
| some government departments the aV-
erage salary has declined. For example
the average pay received by an employe
of the bureau of graving and print
ing today is only $6SS ID year, while il
1898 it was s1,4S6 a year This he says
is due wholly to the fact that the mum
Der Of high paid positions has increased
a little, while the number of low paid
positions has increased a great deal
Thus there are now on the rolls "a char
women receiving 5000 a year, IS labor.
erS at $40 Il year and so watchmen al
$790 year
To this the employees rebuttal, would
be to ask how these charwomen are
to live on less than 81 a day. and how
the laborers and watchmen are to raise
families on from S11 to SIS dollars &
week? And they would also ask how
is the government to hold its organi
cation together If it does not pay it.
employees living wages?
1t all comes down to the same ques
ton Should pay for services be NaseC
on relative standard of the value o
such services, or on a positive STANDARD
of the cost of living? Which method
is best for the individual and which il
best for the social organization as {
whole?