The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-09-05

probably shrunk considerably since
then because of the increase in unem-
plOyment.
Among the clerks and kindred work
ers" in 1880 there were 4,S77,235 men
and 3,072,220 women, most Of whom
were Office workers and lowered just a
little below the $1,000 mark. Most of
them live in houses or flats of three
to five rooms, and some have small
car. You don't really begin to get
above the $4,000 mark until you get
into the skilled workers and fore
men," and even then it is difficult ia
group which the depression has injured
least is that labeled "prOprietors and
managers" Unskilled workers, Of
course, have suffered most, although
not much more than the professional
persons"
The great bulk of the 3,339,602 per-
sons whose income in 1888 was between
$500 and $1,000 comprises 'propri-
etors and managers" These folks, on
the whole, live comfortably in the bet
ter suburbs in houses that cost $500
up and were all built several years
ago. They have economical largely by
limiting themselves to only one car,
cutting down on the number of serv-
ants and sending their children to the
state universities instead of the more
expensive private schools.
They and their families are the great
middle class" Figuring four to q
family, this class totals about 1885,
600 persons. OF all the Americans FL
ing income tax returns on incomes of
more than $500, 81 per cent were in
the $500 to $1,000 class. There were
only 31S,456 persons, or about 1,273,S24
families with incomes between $4,000
and $4,000. Certainly this would indi-
cate that the top class, in regard to
income, the class making more than
$4,000 year, constitutes very small
slice of the nations population.
Another group severely hit by the de-
preston has been the professional
class-doctors, lawyers, artists, actors,
reporters and the like Many of these
in the past two or three years have
dropped into the division below $4,000
and many more are even worse off.
Relief rolls include plenty of dentists,
doctors and artists.
Teachers Have Suffered.
There are of course few at the
peak of each profession who have large
incomes. But the majority of artists,
authors, actors and reporters have not.
A recent survey, which was concerned
principally with metropolitan newspa-
pers, where the wage scale is higher
than it is on small town papers, placed
the average reporters salary at little
more than $3S week. Teachers, who
include 202,337 men and S60, 27S women,
have had their pay checks badly cut
when they get pay checks at all.
According to Prof. Walter Rauten-
strauch of Columbia university, the in
come of persons engaged in production
has diminished far more rapidly than
that of persons in service and distribu-
tive industries, which latter he refers
to as overhead" He says that the
cost of overhead, increasing quickly In
the last Is years, has been further
speeded upward by the depression.
Service and distributive workers in
creased their income as group 1S6
per cent from 1917 to 1892.
In 1917 actual producers numbered
24,677 600; in 1882 they had slipped to
only 17,279,000. Whether employed or
not, their average yearly income was
only $63S; for those employed, it was
$S75, neither of which figures, says DIR.
Rautenstrauch, Is sufficient to support
an average family "decently."
At the end of our study of the popu-
lation are the 46 persons whose in
comes are more than $1,0OO,000 year.
They are, to most of us who read news
papers, not class but a group of in
dividuals whose names are more or
less familiar in headlines.
This, then, is America" We have
to remember the problems of all these
vastly different classes when we pom
der with the orator over .'what Amer
lea needs"
g Western Newspaper Union.