New Britain herald., 1922-01-28

ments, he says that he is opposed tt any reductions in salary Of city eIn' | ploycs because the movement to eHec' reductions Is fos,ered by manufacture CTS with the expectation that they VII have an excuse for bringing the pay Of factory employees to lower levels | The alderman from the sixth ward | goes into the subject quite broadly making the asse rtion that the rate oi pay of a city cmployc IS an I'm portant consideration in adopting wage scales in industrial plants, This | Is mistake, as anyone familiar With manufacturing problems readily un- I dcrstands. on the contrary, the rate paid city employees has no perceptible | effect on factory envelopes and Wor- ries owners of homes and business | blocks far more than 1t does manu' lecturers.
 In all large industrial plants wages are determined by several fac tors First of all. q manufacturer must get his costs of production down to point where he can compete with l the manufacturer of goods Of a like character and quality. Unless he sue ceeds in doing this, he may as well SC out of business because nowadays | competition is keen and woe be to the manufacturer whose customers suspect that he is not reducing prices as quickly as he might The orinci- pal cost of the finished product be- | ing the labor that enters into Us manufacture, it follows that special attention should be given the wage 1 question.
 Another element which must be considered is the labor situation in the immediate vicinity. If there is demand for hands, wages follow the!r usual course and become higher. h. versely, if there is d surplus of labor, wages go down. In this way, as can be seen. labor is subject to the law of supply and demand just as com modities are.
 In addition to earning wages, em- i ployes must also contribute to the welfare of the business. Money must be found to pay interest on invest ment, lighting, heating, other operat- ing costs and overhead expenses, and last, but by no means of least lm- portance. dividends. In establishing wage scales, all these things must be considered To the average laborer, there are only two sides to the wage question his side and the wrong side. Likewise it is true that all employers are not the soul of honor, and it sometimes happens that certain Of them profiteer at the expense of the!r employees to the end that the sacred dividend shall be forthcoming at the end of the quarter. It is believed that this type is the exception to the rule, however, and that the majority of employers want to see their workers happy-but not so happy that 1t Will interfere with their work.
 Alderman Paonessa is one of those whole hearted and sincere persons who frequently allow sentiment to run away with their reason. It is barely possible that he was impelled to make the statement about wages with the hope that it might win favor for his candidacy for the democratic mayor alty nomination, but it would be 'ul1- kind to assert positively that this is true Of course the laboring element holds the balance of power in an ln- dustrial city like New Britain and words such as those uttered by Mir. Paonessa fall soothingly on their ears, so that his aspirations would not be set back at all.
 New Britain political campaigns have been remarkably free of appeals to class. Let's keep them that way
 
 You self-sa tsfied men who stroll along with cigar or cigarette between your lips, or sit in front of the kitch- cn stove drawing on babbling briar, little know what liberties you enjoy compared with early slaves of the soothing weed. Today, no one is not even wasted a second glance If he stops on the street to light up" but when tobacco was first introduced to white men the story was different.
 Had you lived in the time of Louis XIII and your supply of tobacco gave out, you could not send down to the corner store to get more. No indeed. When that august monarch held sway, it was necessary to convince physician that you needed tobacco and then have prescription filled by the local apothecary We suspect that there was a great deal of sick ness among the men of that period.
 At one time, it was a capital of fense to smoke in Russia The Czar made a ruling that smoking increased the fire hazard and was public menace and anyone found in the act of smoking was immediately dis patched. This was rather rough on the boys, we think, but quite gentle compared with what some wives would like to do to friend husband after he has had some of his asso- cates at the office over for little game. ...aM.
 King James the First of England, strongly condemned tobacco. It nau- seated his highness so, y'know, he positively couldn't stand the bally stuff. He denounced tobacco as "loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain. danger ous to the lungs, and, in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest re sembing the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless. "All of which leads to the deduction that Jimmie was suffering from an attack of liver complaint.
 At one time, tobacco was known as nicotine, being named thus after Jean Nicot who, in 1859, while French am bassador to Portugal. sent a package of tobacco seeds from Lisbon to Cath erine de Medcl. Although Europeans used the word nicotine freely, the Jn- dian name tobacco eventually sup plantcd if in noplllar favor and the