The Connecticut labor news., 1922-03-24
Only Isolated Groups of Workers Have Main tained $ t a n d ar d S General in 1900, War Labor Board Member Proves.

NOoA AoSSA VI AsA~1hAOSA
 Proves.
 Cleveland, March 24.-The publicity department of the Brotherhood of Loco motive Engineers has begun the distri- button of the most important study of the purchasing value of workers wages that has been made since the war. This monograph, which has just been printed by the Brotherhood Press, is the work of Basil Nj. Manly, former joint chair man of the War Labor Board with Chief Justice Taft, now director of the Peoples Legislative Service of Wash ington, and one of the foremost authori- ties in the country on industrial eco- monies. MT. Manly entities his scienti- flc study, Are Wages Too High?" and demonstrates that the pay received to- day by workers on the railroads and in coal mines, building trades and nanu- featuring industries IS actually less in purchasing ulvae than the wages for similar labor in 1900.
 The scientific standards by which these study tests present wage scales are: CD The buying power of the wage
 @ A sufficient wage to maintain an average family in health and reasonable comfort;
 (3) The workers rightful share in the value of increased national produc- tivity.
 On these bases MT. Manly finds that the worker who made $2 a day in 1900 had to make $o a day in 1920 simply to break even," and that according to the figures compiled by the Bureau of the Census and the Department of Labor, the real wages of almost every impor- tant group of workers in the country have declined from 4 to 10 per cent dur ing the past 20 years.
 Workers Pay Shrinking
 The official figures show, for in-
 stance, that while pick miners re-
 ceived g cents ton in 1900, 65
 cents in 1918, and $l.16 in 1921,
 the purchasing power of these wages
 in comparison with g cents in 1900
 is but 5, 485 in 1913 and $.427o in
 1921. Similarly, the pay envelopes
 received by railroad engineers and
 conductors today will buy $l62 and
 $o5 less, respectively, of the neces-
 sites of life than would the wages
 they received in 1900.
 Teh only actual increases in wages has ben received by those railroad en- ployes who were paid SO low in 1900 that there was no place for their wages to go but UP.
 MT. Manly closes his study with ex- tensive citations from recent researches by eminent American economists sup porting his findings, and shows that with living costs at present levels and the average unemployment prevailing in most industries, not even the skilled trades are earning enough ito support wife and three small children on even the bare basis of subsistence fixed by the National Industrial Conference Board ,an employers association. These families are either underfed or under clothed, or the deficit of the fathers earnings has to be made up by the labor of the wife or children, or by taking in boarders."
 Mir. Manly sums up his findings in four important conclusions:
 Wages Are Not Too High
 l. American wages are not too high, judged by any fair standard of com parison."
 2. With the exception of few iso- lated occupations that were miserably underpaid in 100, no class or group of workers has succeeded in maintaining unirnpairsd the real value of their wages as measured by the buying power which l they possessed in 1O0."
 5. With the exception of few iso l lated and exceptionally skilled trades, | the wages of American workers are in- sufficient without supplement from other sources, to provide for the subsist- ence of a family consisting of husband, | wife, and three minor children, much | less maintain them in that condition of health and reasonable comfort which | every humane consideration demands.
 4 American labor has been consist ently deprived of its fair share in the productivity of the na- tions industries. Il IS this eyer-increas- ing inequity that is at the rot of the l nations frequent industrial depressions. | And it Is out of this constant under payment of labor that lareg part of the great private fortunes and the huge surpluses of American corporations have been created" Engineers Organise Holding Company
 For the first time in the history of American labor, an organization of workers has entered the investment field and formed finance corporation to mobilize the savings of its members and invest them for their mutual well fare and profit.
 The Brotherhood Holding Co. has been organized as an auxiliary to the B. of L. E. Cooperative National Bank,