Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-13
to mine Join me, and we will run the

to mine. Join me, and we will run th'
| country"
But capital also addresses the poo
| elaried man by way of the other car.
you are the child of opportunity, 4
| tells him. What you want Is unrestricted
opportunity, unrestricted freedom io'
| personal initiative in making money
Thus you can make your fortune Just as
have made mine.
PITY THE sALAR1ED MAN
The poor salaricd man doesn't know
which to believe. But one thing is being
borne in upon his consciousness and with
painful clarity. If the cost of living doesn
fall, or if il keeps on rising, he will not be
able to exist at all. He begins to see that
to hammer down prices is his only saliva
ton. How is he going to do 1t?
In one way the interests of the salaried
man and of the professional dllier from
those of the laborer He cannot go on
strike with effect Direct action de-
signed to increase his reward is not of
much good to him. Collective bargaining
with employers is out of the question.
And this for several reasons. He works at
too many different things and under too
many different arrangements. The coal
miners can strike and hold up the whole
country because the coal mines arc abso-
hitcly dependant upon them, and be-
cause all of them are working for the
operators on substantially the same
terms The same is true OF the railroad
men. the steel men, and a host Of others.
But what would a strike of hookkeepers
como to, for cxampic2 Or of travelling
salesman?
Ii takes a strong minority to defy the
4 -
found out when they tried To strike. The
country simply would not let them
strike. The newspaper reporters found
out the same thing when they tried to
organize unions. Neither the public nor
the publishers would stand for it, and
perhaps rightly.
The middle class, then, TO give it its
proper name. cannot work in unison to
raise its wages rs the laboring class can.
But il can work IL unison to reduce the
cost OF living, which is simply chopplng
of the same loc AT the other end. In its
methods Of making a living II Is too di-
verse to act in unison but IN its method
of buying necessities it Is perfectly unified.
All Of us face the problem Of getting
enough to eat and to wear and place 20
live for the cvcr-dwindling stipend. We
cannot act together TO regulate the
we receive, but We can act to-.
gcthcr to regulat. the amount we will
spend, To surprising extent. House
wives boycotts and organization Of
tenants il New York, local and sporadic
efforts though they were, have shown
the power Of consumers acting together.
So have cooperative stores which have
flourisled here and there 1t would seem
that the white collar class IN this country
with it's unions IN imitation Of labor
unions, IS on the wrong tack, and at
the Middle Class Union OF England.
formed for the purpose Of influencing
legislation to lower the cost of living, is
on the right tack In word, the CO
operative movement among consumers
seems to be the solution to the cvcr-more-
pressing di uculty Of the middle class II
THIS movement would praad II it should
attain to a national organization, the
middle class could take its place with
abor and apital Is s force IN controlling
he distribution Of the things by which
We live