Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-19

then all to join MONS He says tba
| even ls colored cook Is threatening to
| quit his service, and the salary Of $50 n
month which be pays her, because she
| has heard that the government is going
! 10 pay charwomen 81 800 a year.
| Furthermore, the Senator says that this
| whole comparison Of the salaries paid a
| hundred or eighty or even fifty years ago
| is unfair. because the grade Of work done
| by the few government ernpoycs then
was much higher than the grade Of work
! done by most Of them now He saws that
in 1851, for example, there were only
LOO persons IN the government service
| in Washington. Nearly every one Of these
was a brain worker. Now We have lust n
few BRAIN workers supervising a great
number of clerks, who merely hammer
typewriters and punch aiding machines.
Much bookkeeping, which was then done
\ by hand, is now done by machinery In
q word, the average employe then wss
necessarily worth more than the average
emplOye today.
Furthermore, taking the year lS93 as
basis Of comparison, he shows that en-
ploycs IN many departments are rcociv-
ing more now than they did then seven
per cent more IN one case, fifteen per cent
more in another case, and twcnty-scven
per cent more IN a third
He also asserts that the only fair way to
compute the increase is tn take the amount
paid for identically the Same kind Of work
For this purpose he takes the case Of those
doing typing. stenography filling and Ike
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 896S o year ~ 81 ,2G7
syyk.a -,
twenty-five per ccnt
The answe rof the government employees
to all this rs that the cost of living has more
than doubled since 1893, and IL INCREASED
about seventy pr cent between 1914
and 1918 Thus, 10 take the SENATOR
farest casc that of the stcnogs who rose
from about 1900 10 about 81 200 IN four
years they actually lost about forty
five per cent Of their solaries IN the four
years 80 far rs purchasing power IS ron
ccrBed. The 81 ,Z00 in 1913 was worth I
only about IS much as 800 III 1914 Aud
that is not much for anyone ~ live on
Tho Senator frankly admits that n
some government departments the aver
age salary has declined For example. tho
average pay received by an crnplnye q
the Bureau Of Engraving and Printing
today is only 1888 year. while N 1893
II was - ,DSo year. 1 nus ~ says Is d'lc
wholly 70 the fact that the number II
high paid positions has increased little
while the number 81 low paid positions
has increased a great deal Thus there
are now on the rolls nlncty-four char
women receiving $500 year eIghty-fvc
laborers At $40 a year and eighty watch
mon AZ S720 year
In this the crnploye' Z rebuttd would bc
n ask how these charE0mcn are to live
on less than 3 dollar day and how the
laborers and watchmen arc 70 raise lam
iiIcs on from eleven to fifteen dollars d
week. And they would also ask, how Il
the government IN hold its Organization
together L II does not pay Us employees
living wages
IT All comes down 10 the same question.
Should pay for 5ervices Be based ID 4
relative standard Of tho value of stich GER
vices, or on q positive standard 0f the
,ost 0f living? Which method Il best for
he individual and which is best for The
,ocial organization as q whole2