Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-22

IA I YIN, u -, July 1I-IlOW IuuCH
wv farther will dollar go now than it
would 60 in 1919? This sounds like a
school boys arithmetic problem, but it Is caus-
ing all sorts of worry to gray-haired employ
erS, earnest young store clerks, and bewildered
members of the public. So far nobody an
swer agrees with any other
The factions that are struggling with higher
mathematics as applied to rent, summer dresses,
and carfare are the members of the minimum
wage board and advisory conference in this
city.
In Kansas a similar group recently gave all
opinion that SaleSgirl can live on $11 week.
This rate has become the minimum wage there,
but it is beng fought by the women involved.
Miss Alice MacFarla1d of the Industrial Rela-
tons Court submits 1868 as the minimum
wage for Kansas, compatible with health. EN-
| ployerS insist that living costs are materially
cheaper than few years ago, and that $11 is
ample. Obviously, somebody's answer is wrong.
| Most people regard these minimum wage
contests in different states from casual and
impersonal point of view. The issue seems so
renote-whether girls in stores and factories
shall be allowed money to buy three Shrtwasts
or four in year; whether SIS suit should
last them two years.
Yet the issue does concern the public vitality.
1t is pretty we'll proved that the girl who is
healthy. properly fed, and reasonably contented
ID TIC WOIhCI VIII ID CuGSIlul ana GIllCl6QC. a
SaleSgirls crouch is more often due to poor
lunch or financial worries than to improving
meanneSS. Then, too, the worker who does
not make living cannot spend, and this effects
business.
But aside from any personal interest in the
minimum wage. the public is being asked to
take an altruiStc interest in the matter. Won1-
en-, especially, and women's organizations are
being urged to look into the minimum wage
OueStiOn, and to WORK for fair
ployer, employe, and the public. The Woman's
Bureau of the Labor Department advocates this.
Woman's Bureau Interested
While it is working directly for women's
welfare, the Bureau says that it aims to be
fair and impartial in its attitude toward the
minimum wage. Its workers have made num-
erouS surveys of living conditions and have
submitted evidence to wage conferences In
some cases the Bureaus budget has been called
too generous by the employers involved in the
wage controversy. In other cases, some items
have been listed by the Bureau at lower cost
than the employers allowed in the budget they
submitted
The Woman'S Bureau believes that two wom-
en- representatives of the public should be in
every wage conference, rather than two men
and one woman. 1t also says that more women
should attend the hearings of the wage confer
enceS, because women know more than men
about buying and what girl can live on.
"For instance Woman's Bureau represent
tative says, "Mrs. Newton Baker was once OH
the Washington minimum wage board She
was the first person to bring up the point that
II girl is expected to wear suit two wears
some provision should be made for reclining
it. No girl, she said, could wear an inexpensive
suit, steadily for two years, without a repair
Dill. The men at the conference had never
thought of this and one was inclined politely
but firmly to discount the idea. But any WON
an would uphold Mrs. Baker,
Washington has for several weeks been de-
batting the question whether the minimum wage
tor store employees should be reduced from
$1,000 to S15.25. The conference has submitted
its recommendation that the present rate of
5000 be continued, and this is practically sure
OF being confirmed by the wage board.
At hearing the other day low-priced suits
were exhibited by buyers from different depart
me1t stores. The men fingered the mate
rial said that the suits "looked pretty good"
The women around the conference table held
up the skirt to see how wide each was A
cheap skirt. they said, often runs too narrow
for any but very slim person to wear in
comfort. The women asked whether such suits
were always in stock in all sizes. They asked
girls to put on the coats because it was ex-
planned some garments that look all right on
rack are badly tailored.
The same thorough tactics were carried out
with the different articles of girls wardrobe.
Shoes, stockings, serge dress, "dress-up Dress"
coat, shirt waists, gloves, and summer dresses
were all submitted to third degree exanina-
ton. AS cross examiners of the buyers the
women members of the conference put the men