The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-03-06
AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING

AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING
people talk about the American stan
dard of Living very much as they might
speak of Mt. Wilson or the Mississippi val
ley" says Prof Scott Nearing in this ar
ticle for the Federated Press, which con-
tinues. LIT seemed to them as permanent as
any other part of the American landscape.
even where this standard was broken
down-by the newly-arrived immigrant,
working in the unskilled tradeS-the skill
ed workers and the white collarites and
professionals stuck proudly by the Ameri-
can Standard of Living slogan. To them at
least it seemed as solid and massive at the
Rocky mountains
Recent events are beginning to raise
doubts, even in the hearts of some of the
most ardent hackers of the American Stan
dard idea. What is this talk about subsis-
tence farms? Is the South German peasant
with his standard diet of boiled potatoes
and sour milk, living on subsistence diet
And ii American farmers can learn how
to live on potatoes and sour milk, how
about American wage workers and salaries
folks? ~ !,
Perhaps the answer can be found in an
advertisement recently published in The
Saturday Review of Literature:
VACANCY in select college prep
school near New York City for Eng
ish department head, male, unmar-
ried, in exchange for room, board,
laundry. No salary. Send credentials
Immediately. Salary following year, if
satisfactory. Box
Is this joke? Has some nonsensenaker
been spending his money to kid credu-
lous public? Not at ALL This one of the
many instances of trained teachers work.
ing for their board
And the American Standard of Living?
There isn't any, of course. The working
masses found this out years ago. White
collarites and the professionals are learn
ing the lesson at this late date. Wherever
there is surplus of labor power it's mar
ket price falls. And since workers must
live, the least for which they can work is
room, meals and laundry. This is the sub
sistence standard
In the teaching profession as elsewhere,
there is labor surplus-unemployed
teachers by the thousands are looking for
JOBS. The ruling class in it's mad campaign
TO maintain interest payments and thus
hold the inflated capital structive. cuts
down school appropriations as it cuts down
everything else except bank-tribute. So
year by year less teachers are wanted.
In the meantime normal schools
teachers colleges and other pedagogical
2r'st-nnills are grinding out thousands of
young men and women, trained to take
non-existent jobs. AS the surplus labor
piles up, it gets easier and easier to secure
leads for an English department by offer
lllg bed, board and laundry. Teachers. like
al he rest, must eat or die.
Back III 1929 some of the big bosses mot
il Washington and agreed not to cut
aces. Widespread publicity was given To
THIS meeting. Pres. William Green Of the
american Federation of Labor signed tbo
ag. cement too. They might as we'll ho"o
a9reed TO keep the temperature above e. 20
all thru the winter The system thev ro ~
resent buys labor power as it buys eve ery
mig =, else, IN the cheapest market. Today
q dozen years learning his trade oets be ~
Board and laundry for his labor time D0u'
That is the subsistence standard ~
n,Vlng Ia the period of decline that follows
the general piling up of surplus canitnI
and surplus labor power. -'"'