The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-07-29

With the cost Of living and prices
increasing during the war period
anywhere from so per cent to lis
per cent, a study of wages made at
the close of the war by the econo-
mists. Hugh Hanna and w. j. Lauck,
led them to conclude that the rise
in money wages between 1914-1915
and January 1918, was only Is per
cent for anthracite miners; rs per
cent for machinists in the Philadel-
phia Navy Yard; 30 per cent for
bitulninous miners working by hand;
and "a per cent and 81 per cent res
pectively, for shipbuilders and pipe
filters in the Philadelphia Navy
Yard. The rise in the building
trades was only from IL to 20 per
cent In still other industries wages
had actually decreased, even during
this prosperity period" while the
wages of other groups of workers re-
manned stationary.
Disregarding the pre-war relation
of wages to living costs which left
the mass of workers in poverty be-
fore the war, it was found that wages
ranged below the cost of living in
the last six months of 1914 an aver
age of points. In 1915 they Jagged
an average of one point below; in
1916, one point, in 1917, IL points
below; in 1918, points.
Taking the real wage figures for
specific industries, we find that dur
ing the war period they were in
many cases lower than they had
been just before the war and some
Of them lower than they were 80
years before! For example, in the
textile industry as whole, we find
that the purchasing power of work.
ers' earnings was a little less during
the war years, 1914-f918, than it had
been during the SOS of the last
century, The workers Of the silk
industry were per cent worse off,
in terms of real wages, in 1918, at
the close of the war, than they had
been in 1914.
Unemployment Persists in War Times
But many believe that even though
the war might not bring back the
mythical high wages" Of the last
war period, and though it may bring
heavy burdens to workers, it would
at least solve the unemployment
crisis. Here again the changed stu
alton bellies those who believe in the
war way" out of the crisis. First,
it must be remembered that even
during certain years of the last war
there was an average of at least
million out of work. With 100000
out of work at present, it is fantastic
to claim that all these workers would
be restored to their jobs by the pro-
ductive (destructive) demands of
war. 1t is true that several mil
lions would be conscripted to work
for the capitalists in killing workers
of other countries at the front. But
their places in the plants or on the
breadlines would be taken by the
millions of impoverished soldiers
wives, bankrupt farmers, child slaves
and others forced to look for jobs
to make up for the lost wages Of the
wage-earner in the trenches. And
the capitalists, as usual, will employ
those who will work cheapest in mu-
milton plants and elsewhere.
Besides, the vast development in
machinery and the advance in cap
italist naturalization must be taken
into account. Even before the crisis
years this process had displaced and
rendered permanently unemployed
some two or three millions for whom
there is absolutely no chance for a
job under capitalism. These ration
alization schemes would become all
the more widespread in wartime as
maximum speed, efficiency" and in
creased productivity are called for
by the war staff. The technologic-
ally unemployed would not only stay
jobless but would be increased in
number as industry further developed
its methods Of doing more work with
fewer workers.