Amerikai Magyar hirlap = American Magyar journal. [volume] (Youngstown, Ohio) 1911-1942, 1922-06-29

the pay envelope. The results of his
every thinking American. He found
by great good fortune complete ac-
count of the costs and wages paid in
the building, for example, Of the Tow
er of London, Westminster Cathedral,
Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, and |
number of famous public buildings |
in great Britain. These have been pre-
served for 750 years in the British |
archives. The record, of course, only |
building trades, but nothing is SO
typical Of general industry as the
condition of just these building trades.
This student found from the rec
ordc at his disposal that 750 years ago
the average wage Of carpenter in
England was cents day. He was
not able to learn the purchasing pow
er Of money in those times and what
5 cents would then buy. Probably 5
cents day was hooked upon as fair
and just recompense. in 1918, the year
before the great war, the daily wage
Of the British carpenter had risen to
$500 a day. That is to say it had tax
en- 750 years to hoist the British Car
penter's wage from cents to $500.
This is interesting but it was not the
most interesting thing disclosed by
this student. The really important
fact uncovered was that on the proof
of historical record there was no per-
iod of fifty in this cycle of seven GEN.
turies and half during which there
was not a wage advance of at least
| 20 per cent for the British artisan. In
one or two periods of fifty years this
wage advance rose to 90 per cent, but
most important of all the facts was
this that at no time during all the 75O
years examined was there ever a ret
repression in the matter of wages to
a former period. That is to say that
each period of fifty years marked
step in advance for the working man.
Every fifty years he had climbed
rung in the ladder. But he no sooner
mounted to higher rung than all the
lower rungs disappeared. AS this oc-
Cured steadily over stretch of 750
years, the economist who made these
comparisons felt justified in suppos-
ing that the same procedure had prob
ably gone on before the period of his
study and would continue as settled
course over human events forever af-
| ter.
He further found that during every
war in this cycle of 750 years wages
of course rose by more than 40 per
cent. They may afterwards have fall
len hack~But they never fell back far
enough to disturb the average of 20
to 40 per cent increase for every cycle
of fifty years. The wage increase fol-
lowing the war of 1914. was 320 per
cent. This of course is abnormal and
could not be expected to continue. The
Commissioner of Labor Statistics in
forms me that taking it over long
series of years the annual average in
crease in the wages in the building
trades, for instance, in the United
States has been per cent year. In
other words, if there had been no
war at all wages would be 18 per cent
higher today than they were in 1918.
Increases above this point if shown to
be the result Of increased prices and
cost of living growing out Of the war
may be subject of course to mutual
readjustments, but not below that
point. In this connection it is inter-
esting to note that a Chicago board
Of arbitration in certain industry
allowed one per cent increase year
as the measure of~a proper increase
in American standards of living re-
gardless of price and cost. In other
words, the war years mark the end of
another period. Another rung in the
ladder has been climbed. The worker
has gone up a step. He is strong
enough and numerous enough to cling
to his position on this higher level.
1t is to be supposed that the rung next
lower down has been sawed off. The
worker has mounted and will never
lclimb down.
This is a historic fact. 1t merely es-
tablishes law Of progress. No one
need be dismayed by it; no one need
regard it as anything but sound hu-
man advancement and good business.
A great deal Of our industrial unrest
would disappear if employers recon
ciled themselves to the inexorable
!; law represented in the facts about u.s.
They might as well make the best OF
it, and there is best to be made.
The best feature of this is that ou1
workers are the great buying public
If they are enriched they are better
buyers, and so are stimulant both to
consumption and to production. The
| manufacturer himself is prosperous
only as his and all other wage-earn.
:. ing employees themselves are prosper.
, Gus. The man who pays good wages