The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-25
WAGE LAWS IN ACTION.

The question or a living wage
again has come up for settlement, this
time in California. Working girls
have been receiving a minimum of SIS
week. Now. according to figures
by investigators of the industrial well
fare commission. working girl in
San Francisco, Oakland or Los Ange-
les can live comfortably on s12.s2 a
week
The real fact probably is that some
girls can live comfortably on that
amount. others not so comfortably and
others scarcely at all. -
The term "a living wage" has al
ways appealed to large part of the
American people. When the Giving
wage" slogan was first introduced into
discussions of industrial conditions. 1t
seemed to be a close analogy between
the demand which it expressed and the
movement for an eight-hour working
day, which eliminated IN the estab-
Hshment of that standard thru gov
ernmental recognition and enactment.
The living wage" question was
made a prominent issue in the coal
strike. In the strike OF the railroad
shopmen and in the demands of the
maintenance-of-Yay workers. Re-
Gently two utterances have again TO
cused pubic attention on the subject.
During the political campaign PresI-
dent Harding declared not merely for
Irving wage" but for a Saving
wage" The United States railroad
labor board, on the other hand, char
acterized the theory upon which the
living wage. demand is based as "a
bit of melliflu )us phraseoIogy well cal
culated to deceive the unthinking.3
and argued that its application would
wreck the railroads and carry the
country's industries into "communis-
tic ruin
Legislation establishing uniformity
of conditions affecting large numbers
of persons, in widely separately sec
tons of the country and in varied oc-
equations. must be based upon more
than abstract principles of justice.
There must be a common denomipa-
tor to permit the working out of
sound solution. In the eight-hour day
problem there was such a basic factor
the physical limitations of the hui
man organism, calculated in connec-
ton with considerations of health and
social welfare. There was the demon
strated fact that continuous employ
ment in excess of eight hours q day
tended to impair the health and NOR
ais of workers and reacted unfavor-
ably on society.
Common factors of a similar nature
do not appear in the wage problem.
Wages are reckoned by the dollar
sta An 70 Of
varies widely. The New York Tribune
has stated the case as follows:
so long as the living wage was
only an abstraction nobody quarreIed
with it. 1t was economically nebu1ous
and innocuous. But when people
tried to apply it concreteIy its illusory
character became manifest and its
ACCOMMODATIONS began to work mis-
chief A living wage is beyond def
milton, either economically or sociolog-
ically. A d1flar has a different value
for nearly every Garner and user. Its
purchasing power also varies enor-
mo0sly in different localities. In the
same surroundings living wage for
one workman might mean either at
fIuence or Indulgence for another. In a
hundred different places there would
be a hundred living wage standards
for a. hundred different individuals.
And the fluctuating quality of these
standards is further accenruated when
the number of persons dependent on
the worker is taken into account
Conditions make impossible The
arbitrary fixing of standards by law,
The first problem Is to find a basis
upon which to calculate a Living
wage" 1t would be comparatively
simple to make the calculation for
specified date, affecting one family of
given size. residing in a>designated
community. But a Giving wage de-
termined for that family might be in
adequate or excessive for another sit
uated in different locality. More
over. it might not be a just living
wage for the same family six months
later, or ever again. This is illustrated
by the California case. where a living
wage. only recently fixed at SIS. now
is placed at $12.S2.
There appears to be a tendency on