Evening star., 1943-06-06
Middle Class Hurt
by Initiation
BIZ ODen L. Scott.

All major civilian classes, except the
big middle class, now appear to be get
ting their cut out of the present war
time initiation. 1t is this middle class
that is the forgotten class when favors
are passed out among the Nations civil
| ians.
Factory workers are found, on the
basis of official figures, to have done
very well by themselves during the in
| fation. In spite of cost of living ad-
yances they have managed, on the aver
age. to obtain an income that buys about
40 per cent more than in the period be-
fore the war. This increased real" in
| come is due both to higher pay per hour
| and to more hours worked.
| It is found that farmers, also, are
| making out extremely well. Farm in
| come last year was not far from twice as
| large as 1t was back in 1889. This year
| that income is going to be more than
| twice as large as in the prewar period.
| On top of that, the farmer belongs to the
| one class that enjoys a definite eXemp-
ton from the military draft, and he gets
many favors when goods are rationed
| and when gasoline is divided up.
Now the upper income groups are to
be given something of a break. They
| have been paying taxes that each year
have been sharply higher than taxes in
| the year before. This year, however,
| Congress Is promising to permit tax
payers finally to get on basis Of pay
ment that will enable them to absorb a
f1,n oy'c tox JjoL of
| 25 per cent of that liability. All tax
payers, except those with smallest in
comes, are treated alike SO that the man
with the largest income is relieved of the
most tax liability. This relief is very
real, inasmuch as 1t ends what always
has been first lien on an income tax
payers bank account or savings account
or home.
Nobody, however, has done anything
very tangible for middle class citizens.
It is true that the ite-collar worker,
of modest income, shares on the same
basis as most other taxpayers in the
abatement of part of years income
taxes, but these taxes are not his big
gest worry. This salaried worker has
shared little in the general rise of income
that has been going on in the country
He has no union to make wage demands
for him. His salary is frozen and there
is no little steel formula to permit him
to get salary raise Of Is per cent
over January, 1941.
II this salaried mans income was $4,000
in 1899 it more likely than not is $4,000
now. But back in 1889, if this worker was
married and had two children, he paid
no income tax. Today, on the same basis,
his tax would be $470 so that the income
he has left for spending now is down to
SO $50 This individual, too more likely
than not, is under pressure to put 10 per
cent Of his salary in War bonds. If he
does that, he must figure out how to
live currently on $3.50.
But living costs have risen sharply
since 1899. Those costs for the average
worker are Is per cent higher than they
were before the war. This means that
the $3.50 that the man of $4,000 income
has left, really will buy only 1854 worth
of goods in terms of 1889 dollars. In a
word, the salaried man with $4,000 in
come, who was getting along well in
1899, finds that today he is enjoying what
amounts to more than IS per cent
pay cut.
Millions of nliddle-class families are
in this position today. These families
find it more difficult to meet payments
on the mortgages on their homes, to
keep up payments on insurance, and to
join the competition for food and other
goods that are peddled in the black mar
kets They are the ones who are least
likely to have requested or to have been
given supplemental gasoline rations for
their cars or to have had other special
consideration.
But that isn't the whole story. The
time is approaching when fathers will
be drafted for military service Congress
has given a blanket deferment for farm
workers. This means that large num-
bers of single men, physically fit and
of draft age, are backing up on farms.
Selective Service is rather liberal with
deferment of industrial workers as nee
essary men, where employers request it.
IhlS means that more single men and
non-tathers are backed up in industry
and are relieved from the draft for vary
ing periods
1t is difficult, however, to prove that
e-collar worker is necessary man
and one who cannot be replaced. So
again the real war pinch is to hit the
mlddle-class family.
The American middle class does not
get much consideration from Congress
or the White House. 1t is not organized
into unions and is not effective as a group
at election time. 1t maintains no lobby
and is relatively inarticulate. The result
is that so long as the burden of war, in
sofar as it must be borne by civilians
can be centered on the middle class, Con-
gress will be fairly well content.
There are beginning to be signs, how
ever, that the White House is aware of
political stirring in the ranks of the
American middle class. That class, If
once aroused sufficiently to vote so,ne-
what as unit, can WELD more power at
election time than can the farmers of
the country and 1t is not so very far
behind the organized workers. The signs
suggest that high officials now fear mid
dle-class families are beginning to be
aware Of the position in which they find
themselves as the forgotten class of this
war. Once that awareness sinks in, it
can have much meaning for the workers
and farmers when the postwar political
reaction starts and there is a chance to
adjust some of the wartime inequalities.