The Connecticut labor news., 1922-06-02
PAY SAVING WAGE HERE, DEVELOP HOME MARKETS AND INDUSTRY THEREBY, DAVIS
 URGES EMPLOYERS IN STRONG ARTICLES

penses, then the butcher, the grocer, the general merchant, and the doctor, are paying in uncollectible bills to the workers Ill a community what the industries should pay in earnings.
 No one will argue that an industry which does not pay enough to support it's workers Is good thing for a com munity In fact all economists class such as parasitic industries, sapping the lifeblood out of a community.
 The investigations of the bureau of labor statistics show that when wages begin to decrease below the standard of living that the family had formerly set for itself, the first thing hit is furniture, the family stops buying new furniture, new car pets, new dishes. The next thing hit is the wife's clothing.
 The appearance of the children at school or elsewhere must be main taincd-the mothers pride will see to that; the husband especially If he is out of work, must maintain a req sonable appearance in order to have any show of getting aonther job; so the expenses for the wearing apparel of the wife must stand the brunt.
 Earnings Affect Every One.
 
 of Illinois or Kentucky due to the ture factories in Grand Rapids, Mich, and the textile mills of Lowel land Lawrence, Mass.
 As this goes on repairs to the house have to be neglected; new houses that were planned and hoped for are not built, with the result that lumber pur- chases are not made and the sawmills close, which in turn throws more men out of work in the building trades.
 Sidewalks go unrepaired, streets un-paved, and in present production of $o,ooo, 900 barrels of cement drops to not half of that, but to one-fourth of that for when wages and living standards get low enough cement sidewalks, cement anything, become luxuries and are much harder hit than flour and foods.
 Effect of Reduced Wages.
 Reduce the wages to that of the Chinese coolie and you close the fac tories of the United States, you close the coal mines, you stop the rail roads. Cut the standard of living of the American family in half and in stead of mining 5oo,ooo,ooo tons of coal to keep up our factories and run our railroads you would mine 2oo,- 100000, with the loss of the invest ment in present Equipment and the loss of the profits from the operation of our industries upon which the other 27 per cent of those "gainfu1ly employed" now live and upon which those who are merely clipping cou- pons and hence not counted as gain fully employed" live.
 Eor the rich cannot 0,1rchaSa all nf the products of our mills and mines and farms; moreover the luxury of the rich will rapidly decline when the profits on the purchases of the wage earner at his present standard of liv- ing cease by reason of the reduction of that standard
 High Wages, Big Buying.
 We can all see this, but apparently ii is not so easy for some people to see the converse of this-that with an increased standard of living, with a wage that not only met the reason able expenses of living but provided fair margin of saving, the result would be to correspondingly increase the prosperity of all up to the point of full saturatior to the limit of human wants, point not yet even in sight.
 The commissioner of labor statis- tics tells me that since 1899 and up to 1919, while population had increas- | ed 3o7%o, manufactured food products l had increased 9I.I@o, textile oo.7%o, to- bacco 76%o, stone, clay and glass prod 1 ucts 78.89o, iron and steel 1I2.7, chem icals 1822%, metal products other than iron and steel Io69o, vehicles, in cluding automobiles, I,2738%, mining | 128.49o, and that only in the case of | agriculture and the production of | lumber has the per cent of production | fallen below the per cent of popula- ton increase.
 Means Added Comforts.
 This increase of production over |