Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-10-13
Statistics OF Speaking
Times Is Still Nuts
9 Times Out Of 9

First the Times editorial writer tried to persuade you
that q wage cut would put more money in your pay check
Now he has a new theory.
The wages of union workers, he contends always have
: gone up swifter and higher than the cost of living"
He does this with statistics.
We love statistics. They can be used to prove anything.
For instance: a bachelor, a bigamist and a married editorial
writer have an average of one wife apiece. The bachelor has
none, the bigamist has two, and the married man has one.
Three men; three wives; one wife apiece, as we said. .
Or perhaps you prefer this one: The Times circulation
is about $4,000. The Journal circulation is about $4,000.
Therefore the Times and the Journal are running neck-and-
neck in Toledo.
Or, if you enjoy statistics, we might offer this: In 1899
(the Times says the average w Garner was getting
$2386; and as of the end of last August the average wage
Garner was getting $6O.28. During this period, while the cost
of living was going up only IA per cent, (the Times points
OUT weekly wages were rising 14 per cent. We haven't
figured it out, but let's assume that the T m e S editorial
writer finally got something correct, and proceed from
there.
Since no wage Garner is a statistic or a walking
ing number but a person with ~toothaches, rent, Monday
morning migrims and the other ills of humanity, maybe we
can dig a little deeper into these statistics.
= Although the wages of this statistical worker have
gone from $23.86 to $6028 in II years, it's a distinct posi-
bilty that he now has four kids instead of none; a big
mortgage instead of a low rent; and a big, fat medical bill
from a major operation, instead OF a 28inch waist and an
appetite.
Or, let's take another look at this Statistical PROPOSE
There never was a time in the memory of any living
Toledo worker when $23.86 was enough income. No one
Z could properly cloth, feed, house and educate a family on it.
The increase which brought this wage from $23.86 to
$50 and from $50 to $5 and from $35 to $40 can hardly be
figured (by anyone but statisticians and editorial writers)
Union leaders know, if editorial writers do not, that
there is no statistical virtue in improving a mans income
from nowhere near adequate" to nearly adequate" to
barely adequate" Not until it has reached the point of
complete adequacy can you begin to estimate the amount
of the wage boost" against the increase in the cost of living.
1t can be argued that $6028, as of last August, is still
inadequate, and, in fact, average weekly earnings still
haven't caught up with the cost of living.
At this point, we might take a shot at answering the
question management sometimes asks: "At what point will
Labor stop demanding wage Increases"
We submit that a good wage is a wage that covers all
of a family's expenses in the way of clothing, housing, food
and the other items of existence and provides butter, not
margarine; beef not horsemeat; a good home, not a tene-
ment; that further provides for entertainment; that further
provides for a reserve against emergencies; and that THEN
provides for a surplus, or profit" that a worker can stick
in the bank.
A wage Garner has just as much right as an editorial
writer or a manufacturer to a profit. He has a right, in
simple fact, to something over and above the basic income
needed to stay alive and out of jail. How much profit" he
is entitled to will probably become a matter for future col
lective bargaining.
wages of everyone to a point where it can be said: "Okay.
Everyone can get by on this much. NOW, folks, let's get
down to bargaining. HOW MUCH PROFIT FOR THE
WORKER SHALL THE NEW WAGE CONTRACT CON-
TRACT CONTAIN?"
Then we will be interested in statistics: how much the
extra, or surplus, or profit income of the wage Garner is in
creasing in comparison to the cost of living.
We aren't there yet and not all the fancy statistics
that can be crowded onto an editorial page of the Toledo
Times will persuade anyone that we are.
In conclusion, we'd like to pose a statistic of our own:
If one editorial writer like the one on the Times re-
suits in a circulation of 46,607, would two such editorial
writers result in %, 40512?