YoungstownskeÌ SlovenskeÌ noviny = Youngstown Slovak news. (Youngstown, Ohio) 1910-1940, 1922-06-30
81. t0NA is22.

War first gave us the living wage /,
as thing to think about. Since then
it has stayed with us as a phrase, d
label for the amount Of money that it
was supposed to represent. We still
hear much about it, with good deal
of confusion as to what is meant by
living wage. The trend Of events |
since the war has put the employer in
the position Of clinging to the original |
meaning Of the term, as wage ad-
justed to The actual cost Of living. But
to the wage Garner himself, the living
wage has come to mean something
more definite. II 1t means anything
to him the living wage means wage
on which .he can really live--that is,
a pay envelope that will permit him
to do little more than, merely meet
the day to day cost Of his necessities,
and enjoy something of life in addi-
tion.
To my mind one Of the significant
developments of human society since
the war is this frame of mind on the
part of the worker. In his view living
has become something above meeting
the bare necessities of life. In his
thoughts the merely living wage, in its
original meaning, is something obso-
lete. He will never willingly 60 back
to it. To this fact we may as well
reconcile ourselves, and adjust our
economic life to it. While, as now,
unemployment is still rife, and work
is at premium, we may deliberately
force wages down as we please, it can;
be only for time. At the moment
when business inprves and prosper
ity returns, we may Expect it as
certainty that the American work
man will come back with a wage per-
mitting him not simply TO exist but
to get something out of existence and
let me say here and now that this is
to regarded as a reasonable and well
come thing.
l am convinced that this wider con-
ception of what constitutes a truly
living wage is. entertained not alne
by the workman himself, but the
American people as whole have will
ingly conceded it to him. A few re-
dictionary minds among US may still
cling to the literal Interpretation of a
living wage as one to meet the cost
of living only; but these l feel sure
will be pushed aside by the greater
number of more liberal minded Amer
leans who in the future will be sure tt
put broader conception on the term
"aaliving wage" There is no turning
back the clock of time or events. Dur.
ing the war the workman grew &C.
customed to comforts in life that HI
had not before tasted. Even now h,
conceives that many Of the most am
bilious of these enjoyments he may
have to give up for good. For tht
time being he has been forced. to sur
render them all. Nevertheless, larg,
measure Of these new enjoyments h,
has never given up permanently. Ant
feel sure that it is not the wish, o.
our people that he should give then
up forever.
No one has sensed the present eco
nomic situation more acutely or &C
curately than President Harding him
self. In one of the finest speeche!
he ever made, in a passage touching
on justice to the working man, he pu
most forcible and moving construc
tion on this popular feeling in favo
of a better treatment of the man wht
tolls. In that speech the Presiden
said: "The workman's lowest wag
must be enough for comfort, enough
to make his house home, enough t.
insure that the struggle for~existenc
shall not crowd out the things WORT
existing for" No one could have ex
pressed this more succinctly. 1t wa
an expression not simply of a genera
popular conviction, but of new de
lnand Of the working man himself.
After all, this is not new or revo
lutionary demand on his part. He
not exhorbitant. He is only consciou
of having won new dignity, NOR
important place, place Of create
respectability and trust, in our ma
tional life, and he now Graves the an
swering reward. This much is certain
that from now on our people in gen
eral will have to shape their way o
life, their own ability to earn and i
pay so that henceforward a prope
share Of the simple good things tina
all of US have always enjoyed shal
fall to the lot of the man who tolls
One form in which this award mus
fall to him is in the form of q wage
call it what you will-in view of tn
loose meaning that has come to b
attached to the old living wage.
prefer to call the new wage the buy
ing and saving wage.
OF the forty-one and half millio
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