Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-03-03
CHINESE WAGES
ARE BETTER THAN THOSE THE
RAILROADS WOULD PAY.
Says Senator La Toilette in a Recent
Scathing Speech in Which the
Efforts to Crush Labor Are
Numerically Flayed.

Washington, d. -"Notwithstand-
ing the American worker is today re-
ceiving less real wages than before
the war, the American employer is
determined to force him back to still
lower wages.
can accurate comparison of union
wage scales with living costs cover
ing period of twenty years shows
conclusively that, measured by the
amount of food, shelter and clothing
his pay will purchase, the worker now
is infinitely worse off than he was at
the beginning of the present century"
SO declares Senator Robert NJ. La
Toilette, of Wisconsin, who recently
delivered in the senate perhaps the
most sensational deliverance yet
made on the condition of the working
people.
In terms Of what money will buy,
the track-laborer on the railro s1s to-
day is receiving in exchange for his
toll only $341 year, Senator La Fol-
lette said.
The railroads ask the Labor Board
to make the daily wage of laborers
$1.50 for ten-hour day. Measured
by the purchasing power of 1900, this
will be equivalent to only fifty cents.
"This," says Senator La Toilette,
"would be less than Chinese coolies
were paid in the days when the Paci-
fic railroads were permitted to import
them freely and exploit them unmer-
cifully."
Senator La Toilette directed the at
tention of the senate to a great con-
spiracy that has been Matched by the
masters of American finance and
business" tor destroy labor unions,
which alone stand between workers
and serfdom. Labor is being
crushed, he said, by the processes of
unemployment and wage cutting.
This evil combination against the
workers is made more formidable and
terrifying because it has enlisted the
active support and cooperation of the
national administration and the
courts.
No such combination has ever been
arrayed together for an evil purpose
in the history of this country. Be
side it, the slave power pales into
insignifcance by the record that is
being made by the federal courts at
this time.
"This effort to crush labor" says
Senator La Toilette, "and reduce free
born Americans to the condition of
Russian serfs, may succeed, although
still have such faith in the courage and
integrity of the American people that
I believe they will finally achieve a
glorious victory as overwhelming as
that which crushed the slave power
in 1865. But, in any event, success
can be achieved by these sinister
forces only after a period of strife
and chaos which is too horrible to
contemplate, and their success, how
ever, and whenever accomplished, will
mark the downfall of all the American
republic"
Any attempt to further depress
wages, the senator said, would be dis
astrous. He contended that the
worker today is living below the level
of decent subsistence. The worker
during the. war did not profiteer, con-
trary to popular belief, but, like Alice
in Wonderland, was compelled to run
twice as fast to keep in the same
place. The calumies uttered against
labor, Senator La Toilette said, were
shameless, wanton and wicked. While
profteering was rife in business and
finance, labor contributed Loyalty and
generously to the winning of the war
and is getting in reward treatment Sc
brutal, so unjust, that decent opin-
ion must stand APPALLED, at it's mere
contemplation.