Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-06-13

Will go Oack 10 war. Time level
What goes up must come down, y
does not apply, over a span of years.
to wages. All that labor ever gained
it held. II will hold, inevitably, all
that it has won during the world war.
Comb Ancient Records.
Such is the conclusion. extracted like
an infinitesmal particle of radiunl.
from tons Of raw material. gathered
throughout the world by the ways and
means committee of the house Of rep
resentatives and just made public. In
it's search for information as to wages
paid throughout the world the commit
tee combed the records of almost every
civilized country. 1t found a veritablc
mine of golden material 1t found also
small particles of radium. Nowhere in
modern history have wages receded, ex-
cept for a comparatively brief time
after a great war. They always went
back to the war time level and then
began to climb again.
The committee also found confirma-
ton that no workman in the world gets
the pay Of the Americans. Just as the
Americans top the workers of all lands
in efficiency and per day production
so does he excel them all in the size
Of his pay envelope.
Go Back 700 Years.
In it's search the committee went
back nearly 700 years through the rec
ords Of Westminster Abbey, the tower
Of London and Buckingham palace. Its
first records start with the year 1858,
and cover wages paid in the building
trades in England. Carpenters. mas
ons, bricklayers and plumbers received
then a daily wage of six cents-and
boarded themselves and their families.
Labor unskilled were paid a penny
and three farthings-three and one
half cents.
Then the climb began. In 1880. when
Edward the Black Prince. was winning
his victories in France the carpenters
back home had advanced their wages to
eight cents a day. A century later,
when Henry V won the battle ofsAgin
Court the carpenters at home were
getting IL cents. He received no in |
crease for a century. When. Mary |
Queen of Scots was beheaded, the car /
penter who Built the stand where the |
execution took place received shilling |
a day-a hundred per cent increase in
fifty years. Seventy years later when
called on to erect beheading stand
for Charles I, the carpenter found his
wage two shillings day.
$5.6O Uay IS Nl9O0St.
In 1920 the average wage of the
British carpenter was D S. d. or
about $500, the highest ever reached
It has receded but little since then. but
in the light Of history, it is going back
again.
Copious records of the average |
American wage paid prior to and after
the civil war are in existence. The |
committee has gone back so years in |
our industrial life and finds that the |
average wage paid in 1910 was 80 per |
cent Of that paid in 1913. When the |
civil war started the average was 40 |
per cent of the 1918 standard. In four
years the average wage increased al |
most so per cent standing in 1865
at So per cent of the 1918 standard.
exactly parallel with that existing two
years after the close Of the war. Wages |
had increased to rise until 1873 when |
the increase was nearly SO per cent. !
Then came the lean year of 1S7S-SO
and wages dropped back to the level !
of 1866 1t took labor ten years to |
regain what it lost so wages did not |
again equal the 1873 record until |
1890.
. From then on. they climbed through !
a period Of depression in 1894, and it !
checking their progress.
Then comes studying the informa
ton placed before it by the ways and !,
means committees finds thot every war |
means committees finds that after /
every war fought by English speak
ing people wages went to a new high |
level. In 1917, when we entered the
war, wages stood at 1913 per cent Of the
1913 Standard. In 1920, at the peak,
they advanced about so per cent over
the 1917 figures.
They are now on the ebb. But
just as surely as the ebbing tide
changes in time and comes back
again in flood, 50 surely does the fig
ures show that we are due, sometime,
for another period Of high wages
exceeding labor's banner year of 1920.