The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-08-13
"MILKING THE COATS


That queer species of advertising
relating to wage reductions still con
tinues in the morning paper. "It's
what you pay, not what you earn that
counts!' says this week. caption. And
is catchy one too, so often used by
the workers in their demands for higher
wages when prices were soaring. But
the matter following is so adroitly put
that one wonders whether or not it's
authors have any regard for the intel
ligence of their readers.
In June 1920, states the ADVERTISE
ment, potatoes were selling for $61S
bushel. In December of the same
year they sold for $l92. Then it is
boastfully declared that "In six
months your dollar grew to more than
three times its former size. You had
three times as much to spend for pota-
toes-your wages had been multiplied
by three''
And it is with such tommyrot they
would beguile the public. It is as de-
lusive and crafty as it is deceptive and
| misleading. There is not now and there
was not before the war proper bal
ance between prices aid wages. How
can there be when most everything we
use and consume is controlled by
combination Of spectators or monopo.
lists? The old law OF supply and de-
mand' is no longer immutable in it's
application to the prices charged to Tho
consuming public for things. 1t is,
however, still immutable in it's applica-
ton to the unorganizcd and "open
shop workers. 1t also applies to work
ers in Union shops, except that it is
not permitted to 60 below "bread-
line' wage.
So we have the wages of the work
ers sliding slowly up and quickly down
with the condition Of employment,
while the things produced by labor are
so controlled by combination that fluc-
tuation in prices to the consumers oc-
ours only as the monopolists will it.
Combination and monopoly have de-
stroyed the equilibrium between wages
and prices. The country is economic
ally "half slave and half free.'
Wages are and have been relatively
low. The average American family can
not save sufficient for that "rainy
day. save without great sacrifice, self
denial and good luck, which would in
clude freedom from i'll health and other
mlsfortunes. In spite Of the alleged
'hlgh' war wages that were paid, the
ordinary worker finds himself dead
broke following 80 days Of idleness.
The 1920 wages would buy 10 bush.
els Of potatoes to one in June 1920, and
three to one in December 1920. If the
arguments advanced in the ADVERTISE
ments to which we refer were sound
wages in 1913 should have been 10
times higher than they were. They
should now be three times higher,
which they are not, to buy the same
quantity of potatoes.
If the adroit advisers who are ex-
plotting the business men of this com.
munity used the price level of 1913 and
the wages of that year as their base
for making comparisons, and if they
were honest, they would be advocating
an increase in wages at this time,
rather than a decrease.
But they are not honest. They arc
professional exploiters who find bust
ness men easy and gullible prey. Just
as the publishers Of 'open shop papers
bleed employers for "support, so the
authors Of the advertisements that arc
now appearing in the Duluth News
Tribune are milking local employers
out Of juicy coin with readiness that
makes the professional newspaper
"burglar' blush.
Under every advertisement is the
following: "Copyright 1911, sidener
& Van Ripper. Who they are and where
they live is not publicly known, except
to the newspapers receiving their mat
ter and with whom they share the
"pickings" they get from the business
men and employers.
Every subscriber to the ttWage Re-
duction Campaign signs the following
contract with the newspaper using the
sidener & Van Ripper matter:
"We, the undersigned hereby sub
scribe and PAY to the (Name Of
i Paper) the sum Of 80 dollars for
j the purpose of defraying the expense