The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-03-25
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS

Interesting facts on the wage situa-
ton in Great Britain are revealed by
the British Ministry of Labor, in pub
fishing the results of new inquiry,
dealing with wages in July, 1912. The
inquiry covered about $4,000 firms in
nearly all sections of industry, with
6,250,0OO employees.
The investigation shows that wages
are not quite keeping up with the cost
Of living. The cost-of-living index rose
by some % per cent, whereas the aver
age hourly rates Of wages were about
"a per cent above those obtaining be-
fore the outbreak of war. Actual
earnings increased by higher per-
centage due to overtime, night and
Sunday work and to increased output
arising from change-over to piece
work.
In the 16 industrial groups covered
in the inquiry, these increases in earn
ings varied, for males, from 25 per
cent in the paper, printing and allied
trades, to 20 per cent in metal and
shipbuilding industries There is a
significant rise in wOmen's wages in
these groups, amounting in the same
period to 32 and 80 per cent respec
lively.
X X X
There is an unmistakable and in
creasing tendency for the gap between
the upper and lower levels of British
wages to narrow, not only as between
groups of industries, but also as be-
tween skilled and unskilled labor.
Since the inquiry was made, addi-
tional wage increases have been grant
ed to number of groups of workers,
including seamen, railway employees,
cotton spinners and weavers, shipyard
workers and canteen Staffs.
Contrasting this wage policy with
that of NaZi Germany, one is aston
ished at the shameless mendacity of
the labor dictator, Sauckel, who is try
ing to show that the steadily falling
standard of living of the German
worker is one of the praiseworthy
achievements of the Nazi New Order
and a pattern for the world" com
ments the International Federation of
Trade Unions bulletin, in discussing
the British report.
The IF,TU bulletin adds:
Recently, under the so called out
put wage operating in Germany,
cut of between Is and 20 per cent was
made in the piece rates. Wage cuts
in Germany with a view to controlling
purchasing power, and increase in
output by increase in wages, are so,
cial principles which are poles apart
and which are characteristic of their
respective systems
The trend under the tOtalitarian
powers is toward an intolerable aggra-
vatiOn of the material situation, where
as under the democratic powers it is
toward greater social equality. There
should be no doubt, even in Germany,
as to the outcome of the struggle be
tween the two
Reports from Stockholm Indicate
that the Germans are now sending
some of their recruits to Denmark to
them, as they do all the Germans, but
recently when Luxembourg recruits,
conscripted by the NaziS, arrived in
Jutland they were overwhelmed by
presents and Danish hospitality. The
Nazis, unable to stand this spectacle
for more than two days, transferred
the LuXemburgers.
Not long ago a number Of Dutch
workers, seized by the Nazs for serv-
ice in Norway, passed through Den
mark. While waiting in Jutland town
the NetherlanderS were ShOwered with
presents by the Danes, and in fact
such Il large crowd of welcoming citi-
zens met them that about seventeen OF
the Dutch workers were able to make
their escape in the crowd. No doubt
they We're later passed on to Sweden.
the only sanctuary now left in the
North of Europe.