The Connecticut labor news., 1922-04-14
lying Wage Not Enough Says Secretary of Labor Davis

even on the basis of our own stand ard, this is not enough for the Amer ican wage carner. He must have saving wage.
 We will discus this saving wage ican business man. A living wage would rent shelter. It would pro- vide heat i'll winter. It would sat isfy the bangs of hunger. It would clothe the workman with a cotton or even perhaps a wool suit and coat. But what would be the effect of such a wage upon the present industrial and commercial status of America if these represented all the purchases of the forty million wage carners and their families? What would be the market for automobiles. telephones and thousands of other appliances not primary necessities if none but the rich could afford them? And yet there are a few American Workmen who cry for living wage, and a few employers whose foresight Is so linn tied that they still pat themselves on the back when they pay a living wage.
 In one of President Harding's most popular addresses he ably said: The worknan's lowest wage must be enough for comfort, enough to make his house a home, enough to insure that the struggle for existence shall not crowd out the things worth ex isting for.' It could not be better expressed. What IS more, this is an expression not only of popular con- viction; 1t is an expression of the new fixed demand of the worker him self It contemplates a saving wage.
 The millions and millions of dol lars invested in automobiles alone were not earned upon a living wage This is true of hundred other ar ticles used in the every day life of the American workman Now Is the saving wage in it's application to the purchase of automobiles reflected in this single transaction. It took iron and steel to build those automobiles, and 1t took ore and coal to produce the steel. But this illustration is but one of many, and 1t would be sur prising ii our statisticians could not show us that our consumption of coal would be decreased 50 per cent. by the discontinuancc of the saving wage.
 We will suppose for moment that no one Is paying the saving wage. We will suppose now that all manu lecturers decide to pay their men the saving wage, and we will take as an example the specific illustration of the manufacture of pianos. He not only enables the men in his factory to purchase pianos, but they become larger purchasers of household fur nishings, clothing, books, pictures, new bathroom conveniences. and a hundred other desirables. They also save something of their earnings, and their savings in the banks make just SO much more capital to be loaned to men of vision who see new profit able business enterprises to be starv- ed. Every other manufacturer finds the same condition existing Ill rela- tion to his business. Giving the say ing wage by the manufacturers is nor giving charity; it is selling products Not only this, but it is bringing the working mans brains into business. l is enlisting whole new investing intelligence in the nations business.
 For just one moment let us take into consideration the social aspect of the situation involving the saving wage. How much less unrest there would be if every worker had in a safe deposit vault a few bonds or a few shares of stock in business cor poration To purchase these he must | be paid a saving wage. This makes him partner in industry, a hustling insider, where before the same work CT might have been a dissatisfied and disgruntled outsider. He now has some incentive to work and urge thrift and hard work upon his fel- lows. By making him a real partner vol, con convert hin from hostile employe into man working for him self as he works for the business
 Investment In Good Will.
 As secretary of labor see in many of the industrial disturbances of the country the tragedy of short sightedness just because the employ CT fails to realize the meaning and importance of the difference between the living and the saving wage, Ii employers could only see that every concession on their part is not . yielding but a solid investment in good will, and if every employe could be sure that every trust they place in the generosity of an employer will share dividends in the pay envelope how much faster the wheels of in dustry would turn.
 Ii one doubts the philosophy of the saving wage, let him but remember that there are forty millions of wage earners in the United States, and that a reduction of one dollar per day would mean a loss in buying power of forty million dollars for every working day, or fifteen billions year and he will no longer doubt, for the