Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-10
SAMUEL M. VAUGHAN
On Living on $6.4o a Week


A WORKINGMAN need not hesitate to
n marry if he is making only SG.40
week, but he must first forsake the large
cities and the many temptations they offer
to the poCketbooks of the unwary and then
he rnust resolve to practice strict home
economies, according to Samuel NJ. Eau-
claim president of the Baldwin Locomotive
Works.
Mr.. Nauclnin himself has lived on SO 6.40 n
week and also managed to build home for
himself with the limited initial sum Of $l25,
and therefore feels qualified to make this
statement. He points also to the fact in
proof of his statement that at the Baldwin
Locomotive Works the wages of several
thousand men averaged less than 81 a week
for various periods since 1883, when he be
came the superintendent of the plant.
"PeOple are not really living nowadays
They are simply killing themselves, some
slowly. some more rapidly, by their mode
of life, he said. II made the statement
some time ago that $40 was enough for.
u man to get married on. ! know that this
is true, because | know there are thousands
Of men who have done it and many who are
doing 1t. OF course, at the present time,
with tn" prevailing high wages, there are
very few who do not contrive to mako
more than that sum one way or another, but
for any one to say that it simply cannot be
done, particularly under normal conditions
is in reality to make a ridiculous statement
THE first thing that a man would have
t0sdo in order to live on SG4O a week would
be~to get away from the big cities. large
percentage of the expenditures that are re-
gardcd rs necessary in a large city become
iuxurips in different locality and can
readily be done without. For instance, You
90 outside and take street car because the
street cars are there before you. You 20 to
the movies because in the CITY it is almost
regarded ms a necessity to have tbat or some
other similar form of amusement. You
move to the small country town or into the
country itself and you enioy n walk Of three
miles or SO 10 the place you are emnIoved
md the absence of moving nictures Is NOT
missed
Didp't Su,Ier D,scom,orts
'' ''''o''S
Naturally, you would have to practice
a comparatively strict economy in cxpcndi.
lures but | know that while / did nor hoyr
! at least did not suffer any real discomforts,
Then. too. Il man who would be compelled to
live on this sum would always have tho in
crntivp before him to work with increased
attention and vigor in order to attain n
better salary and position in life
Take the periods that followed panics
as in 1908, when there were employed at this
plant at least several thousand men whose
,'orassod m"rMs e; GG VIZ ,hn vi o"Gt year
entire year of 1908 of about $3.50. In
cludcd among those employees there were.
Of course, those who made several dollars
less than the average, and of course there
were also those who made larger salaries
each week The fact that these men lived
on this wage shows that my statement 10
not absurd, as some people might imapine
at first glance
| there were at least four thousand mon or,
| ployed here and their average weekly wooa.
,rorn 81 GG with rho hipb nnirt In - ""hsn
rcaching Sl4.G4 and the average for rho 'e"r s"'