Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-02-17
Wage Cut Needed
to Resume Building

Confined from pase Ono
creases ms costs increase. and lack of
confidence in the stability of values In
buildings constructed at present costs.
'To relieve the housing shortage and
ultimately reduce rents. buildings must
be built. Buildings cannot be built
without reduction Of construction
costs. To reduce construction costs re
quires reduction Of material prices
including the high price of the use of
money. contractors and builders
profits, and labor costs in tho building
trades.
building material prices have SCARED
beyond all conscience. During the last
few months there has been downward
trend. but materials still remain at the
modities except oil products. The ma
terial manufacturers are beyond the
horizon of the local builder and con
tractor.
Summing up the situation. the ac-
tual volume of business In the United
States has declined from the peak in
the first part Of 1920 to the first Of the
year, about 30 per cent.
Living Cost Drop ..
''The cost Of living. at the high point
reached in June, 1920. was 104h per
cent above 1914. On February it had
declined to S1.2 per cent above 1914.
Since January there have been large
and continuous retail reductions which
are causing a further decline in the cost
Of living, which, by May 1. should have
reached point from % per cent to 80
per cent below the peak
Wages In many industries have been
reduced from 15 per cent to 30 per cent.
Reductions are continuings Business
failures are large. and Unemployment
has reached a very serious stage. and
was on the ascent at the beginning of
the year;
Wholesale prices for raw materials
have declined since the peak in June,
1920. more than 40 per cent Manufac-
tured materials have declined in some
what less per centage, and retail prices
are following. There IL a wide range
between wholesaler and retailer, and
this gap should be closed up to ,rmal
within the next four or five month";.
Rent remains at standstill in this
city, 65 per cent above pre- war level.
Tells Of Living Cost
Ethelbert Stewart, United States
commissioner Of labor and statistics.
principal speaker at the morning session
today, declared the lowered cost of living
to date has no material bearing on the
wages paid bricklayers and carpenters.
''The cost Of food has decreased but
3 per cent from the peak. This means,
in effect. the saving on food amounts
to but S21 in the family of the average
bricklayer and cernentcr. With oil this
talk of lowered wages being an inevi-
table sequence Of the lowered price of
food and living, it doesn't require nny
great imagination to see that only n
very small wage cut is needed to level
conditions with The per cent lower
food price, he declared amid loud ap-
rlause from the labor wing.
Mr.. Stewart presented statistics ia
show the wages of bricklayers and car
penters kept pace with living costs from
1913 to 1916. Then he declared that
from 1916 to the time when the peak OF
high living costs was reached in 1920
the wages of these trades. even when in =
creases given were considered, never
caught UP to the price OF living. Since
July, 1920, the 3 per cent drop has
come.