The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-09-30


rding to the biennial census of
department of commerce. This
that in spite of a gain of
121 per cent over 1914 pauper
standards prevail thruout the
towns.
Get 40 Per Cent of What They Make.
The rubber industry paid total Of
1881, 843,964 in wages and $48,412, 65S
in salaries in 1923. In return it got
work which had a market value Of
$452,969,556. In other words wage
earners who turned out the work re-
ceived approximately 40 per cent of
the value they created The gross
profit out OF which capital took its
share amounted to $224,826, 1871 or
nearly half again as much as it dis
bursed in wages.
AS the industry has expanded, how
ever, labor's share of the value which
it creates has been slowly but stead
ity rising. In 1914 the owners paid
$44, 1877 ,402 in wages and got produc-
tive work worth $137 ,OS3. The
workers in that year received 80 per
cent of the value they created. In
1919 total wages amounted to $685..
763,0S9 and the value created to S543,
S72,429 giving labor 1856 per cent OF
the gain which resulted from its
work. In the depression year 1921
when forces were heavily reduced la
Dor received 1872 per cent of the value
created.
Small Share.
Just how small the rubberAworker's
actual share of the value he produces
looks when compared with the value
of the material on which he works
and the total value of his product ap-
pears in the following table:
U. S. Rubber Industry 1914 1923
Average wage paid
worker ....--......--.--.-.---...S 597 $1,321
Cost of material
per worker ................. 1904 1886
Other expense including
salaries ....................... 22S SS7
Value of product, esq
per worker ...............-.... 4,065 6,925
Value due to workers toll 1854 3,036
Gross profit to capital as
a result Of each work
er's labor ....-..-......-....-.- 1,041 1852
The increase OF 121 per cent in av-
erage wages, which is considerably in
excess of the increase in cost of liv-
ing. was entirely insufficient when the
low wages in 1914 are taken into ac-
count. According to studies of living
standards made for the Russell Sage
foundation by r. G. Chaplin, such
wages mean that a majority of the
families will be undernounrished, in
sufficiently clothed and badly housed.
Such wages are characteristic of an
industry when left to private initia-
tive. Overexpansion of plant and
overhead during the early competi-
tive period is carried to a point where
capital takes an exhorbitant share of
the value produced. With more ma
chinery than the immediate market re.
quires big American rubber interests
have used low wages to ruin Compel
itors so that today ten closely inter
locked concerns control more than so
per cent of the rubber goods in the
United States and more than 40 per
cent Of the world output.
The extent to which rubber workers
suffered from the depression is also
shown in the report. Their numbers
fell from 15S,549 in 1919 to 1OS,27S in
1921 and total wages from $193, 1885,
0S9 to s12S,s12.s7S, a drop of rs per
cent. But altho the margin between
cost of production and the amount re-
ceived for the goods declined, there
still remained generous $155,S76,-
162 out of which to provide for the
owners.