Milford chronicle., 1948-09-10

90 tne digging in
the files.
Most Of the CO.
lossal debt Of the
United States was
incurred in cheap
money so the
pEc1Ep proposition that
the same people
who borrowed 5O-cent dollars from
themselves" now should increase
the purchasing power Of the dollar
to IS cents means that they should
increase the debt proportionatelv.
THEY WOULD HAVE TO WORK
THAT MUCH LONGER TO PAY
1T OFF.
The profitable way would be
to devalue or initiate the dollar
still more, increase taxes. .
abate our foreign and domestic
extravaganza and reduce the
debt. BUT IN THAT CASE
WAGES WOULD HAVE To
DROP, so 1T WILL NOT BE
DONE.
Mr.. Truman and others who also
know better have tried to separate
the housing shortage from imitation.
Actually this is impossible because
they are elements in the same
problem, and most Of the people
who affect the most tragic coun-
tenance over their homelessness
or squalor are more or less guilty
Of their own distress.
We got cheap
consumer lumber when
FOofs lumberiacks could
The R;U be hired for $45 a
month, when
wages went to a dollar an hour the
price Of food naturally went up.
WHO ELSE BUT THE ULTTMATE
CONSUMER WAS TO PAY THE
INCREASE IN WAGES? Who else
will pay the infationary wages of
carpenters, electricians and masons
and Of the laborers who produce
the nails, brick, wire and other
materials all the way back to the
mines? The government"
President Truman boasts that his
party created inhationary prosper
ity for organized labor, a parasite
feeding on the unorganized major
ity Of the people and upon it's own
tribal kinsmen in the unions. BUT
ANALYSIS OF THAT BOAST. AND
A TRUTHFUL BOAST IT Is. TOO.
SHOWS THAT THE STEELWORK.
Err AND THE CARPENTER PREY
ON ONE ANOTHER.
They are glad to get wages
on pay day which, in figures,
are delightful, like dope. But
they pay IL back TO one another
in artificial overtime and pOr-
tal-tO-pOrtal tricks all based on
eXtravagant hourly scales.
It always has been the custom
Of American workmen to put them
selves at the job on time in the
morning and to travel home on
their own time at the end Of the
shift. The miners were not the in-
ventors Of portal-to-portal pay nor
the first to abuse the principle. The
plumbers, cynical lot long allied
with the master-plumbers in a
predatory conspiracy against the
rest Of the people, had refined
portal-to-portal to a larcenous art
many years ago.
If it takes a
Exposing miner half an hour
The or more to get to
Fill his job after he
'V has reported on the
property his claim for portal.to-
portal pay is reasonable provided
it has not already been met in the
basic hourly scale. In most cases,
it was.
But a carpenter, whether a genu.
inc artisan or the predominantly
shiftless and incompetent spoiler
Of expensive material. has no right
to such bonus for going to a Job
10 or 20 miles from his home.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IS
CHEAP AND FAST AND IF HE
HASN'T A CAR OF HIS OWN HE
CAN LAY MUCH OF THE BLAME
FOR THAT ON HIS COLLEAGUES
IN THE STEEL AND AUTOMO-
TIVE UNIONS.
Yet miner who undertakes 10
hire a home built for his family
by a contractor in the regular
American way. will see the build
ing tradesmen report a half-hour
late and quit half-hour early, on
his payroll, at an average, nova.
days, of about So an hour.
For about 25 working days
he will have to pay his fellow
uniOnists about $50 a day for
SnOthing. And that is an impOr-
Ntant reason why housing costs
so much, so little Of it Is going
up and why the dollar buys so
little Of food, clothing and an.
tOmObiles.