Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-10
THE COST OF LIVING

THE leaders of the railroad work
ers whose pay has been re-
Gently cut have appealed to Presi-
dent Harding, we are told in the
Associated Press dispatches. They
brand the new wage scale as star
walton wages" They demand an
expression of opinion from the chief
executive as to whether or not he
thinks the new wages established
by the railroad board "are suffi-
cient to maintain an American
standard of living and properly
sustain a family" The leaders OF
the railroad men are neither wise
or logical. In. the first place they
say the new wages are starvation
wages. If that be true of course
they are not adequate to either
maintain an American standard of
living, or properly support a fam
lily. No family can be properly
supported on starvation wages.
The statement that the new wages
are starvation wages begs the
whole question. But are the new
wages starvation" wages? Ger
tainly not. They may be inadequate
wages and far below that required
for an American standard of living,
but they are certainly not starva-
ton wages. That is to say wages
on which a family must starve.
There are no such wages in this
country. The railroad leaders do
not help their cause by such exag-
ge~rations. It leads to doubt in
their other statements of fact.
The maintenance OF way EN-
ployes were cut 10 per cent in their
wages by the railroad labor board.
This is the division of railroad
labor that is the lowest paid. 1t
comprises a good deal of common
unskilled labor. This is the second
cut they have had since the high
peak of war prices. They say the
new wage scale leaves them worse
off in purchasing power of their
wage dollar than they were before
the war. We are not inclined to
argue that question. All kinds OF
statistics are quoted on both sides
of that question. To a person who
does not know how statistics are
compiled they are most deceptive.
Interested parties can prove almost
anything they want to prove by
statistics. We have had all sorts
of compilations presented to us as
representing the average COST of an
American standard Of living, some
of them SO high that they are twice
as much as the average family in
come. The sum of money that rep
resents the minimum expense of a
family, living as they think an
American citizen should live, is a
most indefinite sum. We doubt if
any two families would agree on
the amount.
But there are some statistics
available about the recession in
prices of commodities from peak
prices in 1920 that are fairly re-
liable, and they will enable anyone
interested to determine for himself
whether his wages have gone up or
down in purchasing power since
pre-war days. The National Indus
trial Conferenc Board is authority
for the statement that the cost of
living has declined 20 per cent
from peak prices but are still 54.8
per cent higher than before the
war. That statement does not mean
a great deal, because the cost of
living is an indefinite thing. No
two men would agree as to the items
that enter into the cost OF living.
Some would list as necessary items
that would be excluded by others.
Somewhat more definite is the
changes Of wholesale prices listed
by the same conference. Taking
100 as the 1914 level of prices,
wholesale prices went up to a dizzy
lvel reaching 27o in 1920 and in
April 1922 they had dropped to
about 145. The same Industrial
Conference Board, called by the
president, and composed by repre-
%sentatives Of labor, business and
government, found that in April
1922 the wage dollar bought 64.6
cents as compared with 100 cents
in 1914. The March figures of
that year were the same Will the
January figures were 81 cents, and
the lowest purchasing power of the
dollar as compared with pre-war