The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-04-01
JEWELL PROVES TOO MUCH


The Railway Age points out in an
editorial in its current issue that B.
NJ. Jewell. president of the railway
employees department of the American
Federation of Labor, has completely
1 outdistanced all other labor leaders
/ by the demand for wages for rail-
way shop employees which he made be-
fore the Railroad Labor Board. Mr..
Jewell. in answering the demand of
the railways for a reduction of wages,
took the position that railway shop
employees. to support an average
I family OF five" according to health
full standard OF living" should have an
average wage OF S2,6S7 a year.
Mr.. JEWELS conclusion as to the
wage that should be paid" says the
Railway Age. lis based not upon the
productive efficiency of the average
railway shop employe. but upon the
needs of a family of five. But one
family of five has needs as great as
another. Therefore, on his theory.
each employee of every class should be
paid an average of $2,367. But Mr.
Jewell jaIntily ignores vital facts. It
is not true. as he assumes, that the
average family in this country is a
family of five. The records OF the
census show that the average family
contains 4.s persons. Nor is the aver
age family supported by the earnings
OF one person. The number OF fam
lilies in the country is about 24.2OO,-
600. The number of persons gain
fully employed according to the cen
sus. is forty-two millions. 1t follows
that the average family enjoys the in
come of one and three-quarters per
sons, and not OF one person. There
fore. II each person 'gainfuIly en-
plOyed' had an income of S2,637. the
income of the average family would
be $4,000. and not $2.s67. and would
therefore be much larger than Mr.
Jewell says it needs. A family of the
average size. having the average num-
Der of income producers, would re-
quire an average wage for each work
er Of only $3.50 to provide each fam
lily with an income of $2.637. Mr.
Jewell himself says that under the
wage scale, proposed by the railways
a railroad mechanic can make ST.
651." Continuing it's argument the
Age says:
Mr.. Jewell practically contends that
all productive labor should receive an
average wage of at least $2.637. This
average wage for all railway employees
in 1921 would have made the railway
payroll over four billion five hundred
million dollars. or about one billion
seven hundred million dollars more
than it was. It would have made
the expenses and taxes of the rail-
ways exceed their earnings by about
one billion dollars, leaving them not a
cent for fixed charges.
To provide all the forty-two million
people in this country ''gainfully en-
ployed" with an average income of
S2,6S7 would make the total payroll
Of the country's industry one hundred
and eleven billion dollars. But the
largest total production (and income)
Of the people of the United States
was in 1919, when it was sixty-six
billion dollars. This was measured in
the high prices prevailing at that
time. Reduced to the basis OF the
prices of 1918, the production land
income) of the country reached its
maximum in 1917, when it was forty
one billion dollars. Therefore. on the
basis of the prices in 1919. Mr.. Jewell
proposes a payroll for industry ex-
ceeding by forty-five billion dollars
the largest total production ever at
tained, and on the basis of the prices
of 1913. a payroll exceeding by sew
enty billion dollars. or 40 per cent.
the largest production ever attained
"