Golden Age, January 5, 1921

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V0LCMX2 HOLIDAY NUMBEB 1920-1921 Nos. 33 AXP 34

CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE

political—domestic and foreign

Boms to Soldiers—183 Financial Borda------1*3

Heasom for Wanting____1*4 Other Bonns Lepisunou—IM

Opposition to Bonne. 1*3 Justice and the Poor-----IM

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

. Boa and Moon FsHarMs 187 Facts About Llghtntns ——188

The Overall Far— .............tn

What Is Haroeninx In Italy - Z" ----

Wage Earners Paylnx for the War .............. ......-

Where the Money Goss.—172

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

Waxes of Railroaders.

Waxes of Oort. Wor*ers.—174

Waxes of Women Workers 175

Foreign Wage Items

CumniatlrtiDebt is a

Cane —___.

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Juvenile Stadias ia Ala- Now Jewish Literature to bama_______—187 Arise___________ITT

CUM rvimtn-ia iTQ Koron Itano Corrected—183 '

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

Sweet Clover a Friend 182 * For the Jews Alone —_187 Palestine PosslbUitles , - -188 Palatine's Health Dirt —187

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Development of Air Travel 183 Helicopter Possibilities__184 ■

Altitude Flights.................................184 Govarunmtal Artirttlao — 188

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANT

Color and the Fine Arts_180 In Foreign Landa. Gmce

The Opium Tragic................................100 and Crete——__203

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

The Three Great Worlds.—191 Our Greet Creator's Un-• Axes and Dispensations. 193 speakable Gift._________110

The Hidden Mystery____195 Gifts to the Church______201

Makins Pearls (Poes)__208 Juvenile Bible amay terr

Txa Cavra . Cn>-r — 32.00 a Yxas Make remittances to The Golden Aga, AflMraM m mmLoAmb M ArmMmo. If. >_

crhe Golden Age

Volume H New York. Wednesday, December 22, 1920 and January 5, 1921 . Numbers 33 and 34

BONUS TO THE SOLDIERS

{MOST of the soldiers enrolled in the service of the United States during the World War heard repeated promises that after the war was over nothing would be too good for those who 1 -stood between the patriotic manufacturers of munitions and woolens and the doughty Germans, who were sure to demand billions of 1 indemnity if they should win the war.

Among those who heard these promises and believed them were that considerable body of Americans now known as the American Legion. J The Legion was formed in Paris about the time ■ the war ended, had a preliminary meeting at St. • Louis and then a general meeting at Minneap-I olis, with two thousand delegates present, where I resolutions were adopted indicating that the Legion had confidence that the American Cont gress would do something pretty nice by the ( ex-soldiers and that they would wait in an expectant attitude to see what it might be.

Something more than six months later the * waiting became monotonous; and when the • Legion learned that Congress was not planning , to do anything special for the ex-service men » the executive committee of the Legion, at Indi-i anapolis, in February last, decided to place their । • ideas of “adjustment of compensation” before , Congress in tangible form, which was a perfectly sensible and perfectly proper thing for them to J, '

Out of » nnusihiA total of 5,000,000 ex-service men and women the American Legion at last ' . reports had a paid-up membership of 550,000 members, or about 12 percent. It is the largest body of ex-soldiers of the late war extant; and '• despite the fact that its total paid-up membership is considerably less than the total number of ex-service men discharged for disability, and , that many of these have been recruited into its * organization, it is a factor to be reckoned with.

The bonus plan adopted by the executive committee went through the committee by a vote of 42 to 7, and was finally approved by the Legion in all states of the union with the exception of South Carolina and Arkansas. Out of 914 posts in New York State only 41, or about percent, voted against it.

The Hearst papers threw their great strength in favor of the bonus, securing six million signers for favorable action, thus rolling up the largest petition ever placed before any legislative body. ‘

Bonus Legislation

AFTER a great amount of public discussion a

• bill was finally prepared and allowed to come before the House of Representatives, but at such a time that it was known and tacitly admitted by its framers that it would certainly not pass the Senate and hence would not become a law.

This bill, which passed the House on May 29 by a vote of 289 to 92, would allow to every exservice man an option of $1 per day for each day , of service this side of the water and $1.25 per___•

day for each day of service abroad, or a twentyyear endowment certificate for three and one-third times that amount, or 140 percent of that amount in vocational training, or 140 percent of _. the same amount for improvement of home or. farm on plans approved by the Government, or the opportunity to buy land under specially favored conditions.

Friends of the bill believe that it will never pass the Senate, because in the Senate Finance Committee only six out of seventeen members are reckoned as advocates of it, and the complexion of this committee is supposed to represent the general attitude of the Senate fairly well Critics of the bill seem to think that the influence of the American Legion will be per- ’ manently injured if the bill fails of passing the

Senate, and that its influence will be completely destroyed if the bill does pass. Many of those in the Legion who are opposed to the bill oppose it because they do not wish their patriotism measured on a basis of dollars and cents.

Peasons for Wanting Bonus

MANY of the boys who want the bonus for themselves or their comrades claim that they can never be fully compensated for the loss of their jobs, the loss of school and business plans and prospects in life.. They say that they returned from the war poorer than they went, and that they think something should be done to equalize their compensation with that of those who remained at home.

Some of the soldiers are not enthusiastic about their financial experiences during the war. They mention the making of allotments of pay to loved ones at home and of arriving home themselves long before the allotments arrived. They mention deductions for war-risk insurance and liberty bonds, made in an atmosphere that was, to say the least, more than that of n“re suggestion. Some of them complain that their pay checks did not follow them as they should have done, and that they were month after month without any money of their own. Others say that the sixty dollars given them at the time of their discharge was barely sufficient to provide them with necessary civilian clothing, and that they were compelled to borrow from ' relatives and friends in order to reestablish * themselves in business.

* Others of the soldiers, arriving home and finding what had transpired in their absence, f and noting the slimy trail of the profiteer cross-( ing and recrossing. the path of the common people in whichever direction they try to move, are frankly sincere in their desire that these , profiteers be made to share something with those who made their profits possible.

liiey pvuit out that the same provision and energy was apparently not directed toward the 1 drafting of profits and civilian labor to meet the Government’s requirements as was shown in recruiting and mobilizing men for combat service;

' and they are frankly curious to know, between tan and man, why it is that the soldier, in addition to the personal hazards of war, should be

, made to suffer financially because of that service, Not only did the profiteers make millions out of the war; but their next of kin were not usually on the firing line, but in soft places at home. Moreover, the more money they made by their ~ ’ profiteering during the war and since, the more ? ’ rights they assume as to how the business of / the country should hereafter be conducted. ’

One soldier expressed the matter thus: “We ’. find that an unduly large number of patriots . who stayed at. home have doubled their old wages, or have doubled the profits, of their business, and act now as if they were the backbone V-of the country”. .

There is no doubt that most of the soldiers would welcome a little help from Unde Sam. It is all very well to say that they had all their expenses paid while they were away, and a dollar a day besides, and two months’ pay^at conclusion, and that some of them, thus, made more money as soldiers than they had ever made before in their lives; but a little incident shows how statements of this kind may easily convey a false impression: . • ’

Under the Soldier Preference Act, passed'in February, three thousand two hundred soldiers presented themselves at the drawing of seventy-nine forty-acre farms on the North Platte River in the semi-arid short-grass section of Western Nebraska and Eastern Wyoming.. This shows that these men wanted homes and were trying to reestablish themselves. At last reports there had been 169,000 of them seeking after land under this act, but only 188 could be accommodated, and some -of them had to take ten-acre farms. ' . - ’ . ' , ‘

Another reason why the bonus is wanted is hinted at by the New York Times when it claims that the Government is now wasting $2,500,000,000 per year; and if so, it would seem that the money to-pay the bonus could be obtained from savings in the expenditures which originated under the reign of him of whom it was once sung, “He kept us out of the war”—expenditures which are still with us under a change of administration in House and Senate. But do not let us be misunderstood as suggesting that the Times wants the soldiers to have any bonus. Its spasms of righteousness against this or any other plan for dipping into the haul of the profiteers whose it is and whom it represents, and doing anything of value for the under dog, are so well known in New York as to call for no comment said to admit of no discussion. ■

Opposition to the Bonus

OPPOSITION to the bonus comes, of course, from the champions and devotees of profiteers and profiteering who do most of the strutting for patriotism under the name of Chambers of Commerce, but who for self-evident reasons are rercr alarmed at the condition of the count 1 - when millionaires and predatory power are increasing and when the average condition of the common people is growing harder daily.

Let us see: It was these same Chambers of Commerce that used their influence to throw away America’s merchant marine, built at -a cost to the people of some $4,000,000,000. Why did they want it thrown away? Bless you, don’t you know that many of those gentlemen wanted the ships, especially if they could get them at next to nothing, because the profits in ocean freights at present are very great?

So when we read in the papers that 'this Chamber of Commerce or that Chamber of Commerce or the National Association of Credit Men, or some other gathering of Big Business or the satellites of Big Business is against a piece of legislation it is all that we want to know; for its ideas of patriotism are dollar ideas, nothing more. The United States Chamber of Commerce was reported as “alarmed” that half a million Negroes would receive five or six bund red’dollars each, under the bonus plan, and would immediately quit work until the money was spent. That is, roughly estimated, $250,000,000, or about 6} percent of the cost of the merchant marine which they urged Congress to throw to the dogs. And how do they know that all of these Negroes would use this money im-providently? They do not know, and nobody knows. It is just an excuse.

There are other objections to the bonus that are more legitimate. Attention is called • by many to the fact that it is not claimed that the soldiers have been fully compensated or that they have ever been compensated for their sacrifices, but that much of their reward, the principal part of it, in fact, should be the consciousness of a great service rendered to their country . in an hour of need, a consciousness of a ’duty well performed.

It is pointed out that no cash bonus was given to the soldiers in the Revolutionary war, the war of 1812, the Mexican war, the Civil war, or the Spanish-American war. It is apprehended that the bonus if granted will be followed by pensions, for generations.

It is pointed out that during the war Congress helped those with dependents and offered insurance at enormous loss, allowing the soldier to continue to carry it for life at the same rate. It is pointed out, also, that army life was a real benefit physically to many men, life insurance figures giving the average healthy ex-service man an added expectation of life of five years.

Financial Burden of the Bonus

THE bonus bill, as it passed the House, was estimated as involving an expenditure of $1,400,000,000, or about $500,000,000 per year for three years. All the Reserve Bank heads say that this amount cannot be awarded without a grave disturbance of the country’s finances. The bill itself showed, however, just who would be directly distorted, as most of the funds were to come in taxes on stock exchange sales and stock dividends and in surtaxes on incomes of over $5,000. '

Persons in touch with the Administration at Washington point out that during and after the . war there were 643,000 discharged for disability, 70,000 of them for mental disability; and that the country’s first responsibility is to care' for these, and for their dependents, as well as for the dependents of the 100,000 men who died in France.

’ It is pointed out that this work is not yet organized as it should be; that .as late as 1920 there were hundreds of these wounded men in New York, some of whom had, at that time,- ■ been without food for forty-eight hours and had slept in doorways for ten days because they had no place to go. The Government must take care of these men first before it undertakes to do anything for those who_ returned without a scratch and perhaps improved in health. Moreover, the care of these men and their dependents, it is urged, is a lifelong matter, and the expense, great now, will increase materially.

The statement was made last April that the. appropriations for the above purposes since the war Jiave already totalled $868,000,000 and must ere long be in the neighborhood of a billion dollars a year. Moreover, there is now in the Treasury a deficit of three and one-third billions, rapidly becoming four billions; and within the next' three years the Government will have

eiglit billion dollars maturing in Treasury cer-i liiicates, war-savings certificates and Victory notes. And is it likely that the Government will be able easily to borrow again at 3 percent to 4 percent when current rates of interest are around 7 percent?

Statesmen point out that the Government has a >ready levied taxes running as high as 65 percent upon incomes and 80 percent upon war profits and excess profits, and they fear to push the profiteers any further. But many of the common people look at the matter from the other end and say that, no matter what form of taxation is invented, the load will come on the people at the foot of the ladder anyway, as is proven by the advent of the 33,000 new war millionaires. These figure, from sad experience, that ever)' tax laid upon a manufacturer, middleman or retailer, will be passed on down to the people, and always with an additional profit, so that the $13 tax per man, woman and child, which the bonus would represent, would be $20 to $25 by the time it landed on the backs of those who already have more than they can bear.

State Bonus Arrangements . '

NOT waiting for the National Government to act, some of the states have gone ahead and done something for the soldiers on their own account In July, 1919, Massachusetts passed a bill awarding $100 to ever)7 resident of the State who risked his life in the World War. Massachusetts had 200,000 men in the service, ot whom 184,000 were eligible for the bonus. At first, 75,000 of these were of doubtful residence, but this was gradually sifted down to 5,000. The distribution of this award resulted in the location of many erring husbands and wandering sons.

North Dakota has a bonus plan under which she pays her service 'men and women twenty-1 t five dollars for every month they were in the service. This is the most liberal bonus arrangement of which we have heard.

( In May, 1920, the State of New York agreed ' to bond itself for $45,000,000, so that it could pay $10 per month bonus for each month of service of New York State residents. But the ' bill was so drawn as to require final approval it the polls in November. This it secured, and, in our judgment, was passed only to give an , excuse for killing the national bonus bill

Canadian Bonus ■

WHEN the war ended, the Canadian Government voted great sums for gratuities, pensions, vocational training, land settlement and reestablishment work. Up to February it had expended about $300,000,000 in taking care of returned soldiers, including $40,000,000 in cash . to take care of the unemployment period during . the winter of 1919-20. -"

The bonus arrangement adopted provides for six months’ pay for three year’s service, five months’ pay for two year’s service, four months’ pay for one year’s service and three months’ .pay for less than one year’s service. The soldier boys are reported as not satisfied with these. arrangements. The United Veterans’ League, -50,000 strong, is demanding a gratuity of $2,000 each; and the Great War Veterans’ Association, . a still larger body, is pressing in the same general direction. .

Australasian Bonus

IN APRIL the Australian Government adopted a bonus amounting to 25 cents per day from date of enlistment to date of signing the peace treaty. This gratuity cannot be seized by creditors, in the event of a soldier’s dying in debt, but the money will go to his dependents. The gratuities are nontransferable, to prevent Shy- ’ locks from getting them. -

New Zealand has given its soldiers a gratuity of 36 cents per day from date of embarkation to ’ date fcf death or of discharge. _

England alone, of all the European nations, is undertaking, or can undertake, to do anything -looking toward the rewarding of her ex-soldiers. •

Her Board of Internal Revenue has made a careful estimate of war fortunes, which it calculates at $20,000,000,000.. It is planning to expropriate one-fourth of this amount to create , a fund to help ex-soldiers purchase homes or businesses. .

England’s war profits were meager compared to America’s. Here the Steel Trust alone made a clear $1,000,000,000. ' ;

If the soldiers do not get the bonus they have asked they may take a small grain of comfort in the thought that there are millions in the country, estimated at 70 percent, who, like themselves, are poorer because of the war, unable on their meager increases of pay to live even as well as th^y formerly did. . _ . ' --

1 y may take comfort, too, in the thought at there is really nobody in the country, outdo • f the profiteers, Chambers of Commerce, e 1 fork Times, and relatives and hangers-on ' inis class of people, but "would be well pleased ■ sqp'tl:.'in have their just dues, whether they ?t , esc or not

T. ie. people who bear the burdens now must >t expect equality of treatment “Now we call e • oud happy. Yea, they that work wicked-’are set up; yea, they that tempt God are -en delivered.” (Malachi 3:15) But it will )t 1 so in the Golden Age, the Day of the Lord is I it hand. “In his days shall the righteous )Uiish; and abundance of peace so long as the ooa endureth. He shall deliver the needy when ? J eth; the poor also, and him that hath no ?L jr. He shall spare the poor and needy, and lall save the souls of the needy. He shall re-। their soul from deceit [much of which we ii ' has been measured out to these soldier ays] and violence: and precious shall their ioof be in his sight.”—Psalm 72:7-14.

u 'und Moon Fallacies

HHE sun and especially the moon are orbs i-. ’ out which much superstition has centered, v 1 the advanced light of our own day has not ■en sufficient to obliterate all these shadows of le | ast. There is much error yet to be un-a Lad.

Lome of the less informed think of the moon s l ’oducing light within itself, but almost I one knows that the moon is merely a J ct^r of light from the sun. You have erbpps heard the assertion oh a bright moon-night; “If we had two or three full moons ould be bright as day”; but we have Pro-•ssor Young for our authority that “if the he1 firmament were packed with full moons e I. ould receive from it less than one-eighth hi ny think of the moon as a stationary body; f ( it wore, it would appear at a fixed time on K iai Ill’s liuiiiuii eau’u day. However, as the or- is continually travelling in an eastward it1_ it will “rise” later tomorrow than today.

mong the ancient Greeks an-eclipse of the in- moon was regarded with intense super-it n; and you will find people today who lot explain the cause of the phenomenon, ot everyone knows that the sun rotates, and a :he sun is nearest the earth in winter. On July 4, we are 3,110,000 miles farther from the sun than we are on January 3.

Some have supposed that the Scriptural narrative recorded in Joshua 10:11-14, teaches that* the entire solar system ceased its motion at the command of Joshua. Yet the explanation is simple to any thinking person. The enemies of Joshua were sun-worshippers, and the darkness of the day indicated that their sun-god was eclipsed. Then, the account states, there came a great hail storm and killed many of them. The sun was hidden by the clouds; and to discomfit the enemy further Joshua commanded that the sun and moon stay hidden behind the clouds. Another explanation assumes that the sun was visible during the day, and that the heavy clouds refracted the sun’s rays unusually late in the evening—until the moon rose, so that there was no time without light Either explanation is satisfactory to the reasoning mind.— Isaiah 1:18.

The Overall Farce

O YOU remember the time, a little while ago, when there was a sudden protest against the high cost of clothing, and rich men, wearing $15 shoes and $12 silk shirts, put on overalls over expensive clothing and wore them for a few days in public! Do you wish to know how that worked out for the benefit of the common people! It had just one result, so far as we have been able to learn. The common man, who goes to work with a dinner pail in his hand, and is obliged to wear overalls at his work, now has to pay 20 percent more for his overalls than before the rush of these fly-by-night reformers occurred.

This incident illustrates how much many of the people really think on the larger questions. The wind blows war, they are pro-war; it blows peace, they are peace advocates. The press talks right side up, they are right side up; it speaks up side down and up side down they go.

Juvenile Studies in Alabama

Mb Editob: The Golden Age has been a great blessing to me, and I would not take a hundred dollars for the good that my two boys have gotten from the study of the Bible questions. My boys are six and seven years of. age. After using the questions for four months they can discuss the Iwo salvations with more knowledge than a D.'D.

What is Happening in Italy

AS USUAL with events affecting the interests . of great financiers, politicians or ecclesias-1 tics the news concerning happenings in Italy ' has been scanty and misleading; for governmental and Big Business censorships have dis-4 lorted or suppressed facts. -

It is well known that the working people of Europe are quite dissatisfied with what has been brought to them by a war that was to make the world safe for the people. In common with the people of other countries the Italians have suffered peculiar economic consequences of the war. They make strong complaint that while the private soldier patriotically gave up time, wages, home, health, and often life itself, the rich—while professing devoted patriotism— turned time into unpatriotic golden opportunity, multiplied the profits of pre-war business, built more magnificent palaces, improved their health and, with specious pleas of their personal continuance in business being a national necessity, r voided the fate that the common soldier had to meet. whether he would or not. The workers found that post-war conditions brought them harder work, worse working conditions, less purchasing power from wages, and a widening gulf between them and those “above” them.

Powerful organizations were built up, intended to ameliorate the lot of the working people. In the metal workers’ group there were four, according to the Iron Age:

First, the followers of the Lenine. theories, the Italian Federation of Metal Workers—the .F.LO.M.—members of the General Federation of Labor, the official Socialists;

Second, the followers of the moderate Socialists, the Italian Socialist Union—the U. S. I.— controlled by Reformists;

Third, the followers of the anarchists, the' Italian Syndicalist Union—the U. S. I.—fight-iug the regular Socialists, and strong among the Tuscany steel workers and the Genoa and the , , Milan foundrymen; '

Fourth, the fighting association of the Roman . Catholics, the National Association of Metal Workers—the S. N. O. M.—a. vigorous young 1 organization, assisting the church in damming the ocean tide of anti-clericalism. .

Following the so-called syndicalist plan of t immediate or “direct” action, the workers suddenly seized a large part of the factories of Italy, held possession by having some members work in the buildings during the day and others sleep there at night, dispossessed the owners, and sought to run the industries as their own, on the well known but misleading economic theory that wealth—products of all kinds—is the product of labor alone. It was quickly found that labor alone could not successfully operate | plants in a world of industry nine-tenths under the old regime, because of difficulties in the obtaining of raw materials, transportation and the necessary credits for the financing of the work. It became plain to the workers that Italy could not go it alone in a world that might apply the economic boycott—the chief weapon of the so-called League of Nations, now-functioning with headquarters in Switzerland. '

The workers, accordingly, met with the employers to arrange a plan under which the former would give up the minimum of the advantageous position gained by a sudden syndicalism stroke wrhich, law or no law,, had placed them in physical possession of the plants. Each of the four organizations presented a different program for the employers to adopt; but it took only a short time for the owners to persuade them that it would be impossible to operate an industry under four different arrangements in the same plants. This proved to be a master-stroke on the part of the owners; for ' while an arrangement has been concluded, the four groups of workers are being measurably separated by differences as to what should be the details of the plan. -Here was clearly illus- — trated one of the prime obstacles to the successful operation of commerce and industry by workers alone, namely, the honest differences between bodies of men as to the best course to " pursue: some would wish to follow the regular Socialism of Marx, others the abrupt changes demanded by Syndicalism, and still others the subordination of industrial affairs measurably to ecclesiasticism on the claim of the Roman church that as “God’s representative” on earth the priest should run everything from the cradle to the grave.

The kind of shop desired by the most aggressive of the Italian labor organizations, the U. S. -I., appears in the memorandum submitted by them. As outlined in the Iron Age the U. S. L ’ demands:were: , ' . .

1. Complete abolition of any disciplinary rules in the plants; therefore, no fines, no bonu^s, no rules of any ' kind.

2. Absolute prohibition of the manufacture of war material; all the plants now engaged in such work must be immediately demobilized and reorganized with a view 1 of producing only peace materials.

3. In each plant the workmen to have the right to - elect an ‘’’internal workmen’s commission”, acting as j representative of the workmen in the dealings with the । management of the plant.

at 4. Should a workman be seriously injured, so that he is permanently unable to do any work, an insurance ? premium must be paid to him for the rest of his life

I equal to the salary he was getting on the day he was

- hurt: this new regulation must be applied also to past cases of permanent disability; every mill having more

1 than 500 workmen must have its own doctor and medical assistance.

5. Each workman is entitled to fifteen days of absence < annually with full pay.

' 6. All religious or national holidays to be abolished.

7. In case of illness the workmen must be kept on . half-pay.

8. If a plant has been brought to a standstill, and the workmen are idle for causes beyond the workmen’s oon-* trol, such as lack of raw materials, lack of electric power, strikes of office clerks or superintendents, the : workmen must receive full pay; the same applies in the

cases of interruption of work caused by rain, when operations are carried on in the open air.

9. Working hours must not exceed forty-four hours I weekly; but forty-eight hours must be paid for in any

event.

I 10. No overtime work allowed except in cases of । extreme necessity.

11. Where overtime is allowed, the pay must be increased 100 percent. -

12. Night-work of any kind to receive forty percent increase over normal pay. •

13. All present salaries must be increased by a minimum of forty percent to a maximum of seventy percent.

14, 15 and 16 deal with piece-work. . '

- I* A snecial indemnity [pitifully small] of five lire lot each man and of three lire (eight cents) for each woman must be paid as compensation for high wot of living. Every three months this indemnity must be revised, to be increased or decreased if prices of necessities are increasing or decreasing.

18. Whenever the plants need new workmen, preference must be given to the members of the U. S. I. .

19. When reductions in forces are made necessary by lack of orders, instead of discharging the men the working hours must be reduced; no discharges can be effected at any rate without at least a month’s notice.

20. In case of discharge an indemnity of a month's pay for each year of employment must be'paid.

21. Wages must be paid weekly.

22. When assuming new personnel, the plants must no longer require from the workman his penal certificate (a certificate showing whether the applicant has ever been put into jail or condemned).-

23. None of the existing agreements which favor the workmen can be modified.

To American workers accustomed to the relatively humane conditions of progressive industries many of these “demands” are what they now work under. It is a hard comment on the low plane of Italian industry that it should have been thought necessary for the workers to take radical steps in order to stop profiteering and to secure relief from more or less intolerable conditions.

Representatives of Big Business may be relied on to throw as bad a light as possible on these attempts of poor Italian men and women to better their circumstances. One American editor, commenting on the first demand, says that it “would convert a plant into a .battle field”. The abolition of all rules is, of course, an impossibility. If, to suppose an extreme case, all written rules by the management were abolished, there would promptly take their place an unwritten code among the workers, as always happens where men labor together for a common end. Request twenty-two is objected to “because any murderer or thief would have the right to be employed”. Elbert Hubbard used to employ convicts, as Henry Ford is said to do now, with excellent results.' .

Press reports follow the “regular” course of vilifying the workmen, exaggerating the situation, lying about the details, and throwing a color over the affair calculated to rouse fear in-the American heart, with the purpose of enabling the dominant powers to continue their more or less lawless control of affairs here. As a fact, reliable information is to the effect that the new Italian labor administration maintains an iron discipline in the plants, keeps the mills going on an efficiency basis and, in some instances, even increases the output The workers have generally been willing to restore the plants to the owners on a basis giving the workers such a share in the management as will insure them decent treatment and a fair share in the product of their labor. The works are not “transformed into fortresses”; for there were few Jirms in the possession of the workers. It is safq to discount close .to zero many of the press

reports of brutality and other excesses by the workers, though there have doubtless been too many such instances—something unavoidable under conditions of stress.

As a net result of this social and industrial phenomenon the workmen have been granted a small increase in wages, reported as 19 cents a day, and have obtained a substantial share in the control and management of the industries, having a dominant share in the executive work of the plants and an important place on the directorates, so that they can no longer be subjected to unreasonable 'and sometimes cruel exactions. To a considerable extent they can dictate what share of the profits of the business shall come to them as wages, thereby improving their own status and restricting the power of , the wealthy to profiteer, at the expense of the common people. But having measurably achieved what they set out for, they are becoming somewhat divided, in accordance with the differing economic and social theories held by important groups.

On the other hand the controlling powers of money, politics and religion are being forced into an even closer union. The Italian government, partly through fear, took no strong repressive measures, hoping to avoid sanguinary disorder, a course which commends itself as of a high order of wisdom. Out of the situation, however, is' expected to emerge a powerful alliance of industrial magnates, the aristocracy, the army and the church, lined up against the present liberal government and the common people. They regard a surrender to the working people as simply “dangerous weakness’1, and will probably combine to change the government and to “crush by force the labor unions engaged in the present movement”. The situation is in» some respects similar to that which has in a less ......----ower scale been seen in the United States since 1914, and is in certain respects approaching a minor climax now, in the seeming current effort of Big Business and the politicians to destroy the American labor movement, with a view to heading off such occurrences as that in Italy.

The present situation has not come without being clearly foreseen. It was outlined as far back as 1886 by Pastor C. T. Bussell, at a time when in the estimation of the world’s leading economists nothing appeared more improbable.

"Happy would it be,” said this modern seer, the utterance now coming like a voice from the dead, “if moderate and reasonable means would succeed; if the rich would rest with their present acquirements and cooperate with the great mass of the people in the general -and permanent improvement of all classes; if the wageworkers would content themselves with reasonable demands; if the golden rule of love and justice could thus be put in practice. _

‘'But men in their present condition will not observe this rule without compulsion. Though there be some . among the artisans of the world who would be thus O moderate and just in their ideas, the majority are not -so, but will be extreme, unjust and arrogant in. their ideas and demands-beyond reason. Each concession on . the part of capitalists will but add to such demands and ideas; and all having experience know that file arrogance and rule of the ignorant poor are doubly severe. And so among those of wealth—some are fully in sympathy with the laboring classes, and would be glad to act out their sympathy by making such arrangements as would gradually effect the needed reforms; but they are greatly in the minority and wholly powerless in the operating of . corporations and to a great extent in their private. business. If they be merchants or manufacturers, they cannot shorten the hours of labor or increase the wages of their employes; for competitors would then undersell . them, and financial disaster to themselves, their employes and their creditors would follow. . •

“Thus we see the natural cause of the great trouble of this Day of Jehovah*. Selfishness, and blindness to all except their own interests, will control the majority on both sides of the question. Wage-workers will organize and unify their interests, but selfishness will destroy the unions; and each, being actuated mainly by that principle, will scheme and conspire in that direction. The majority, ignorant, will gain control; and the__ better class will be powerless to hold in check that which their intelligence organized. Capitalists will become convinced that the more they yield the more will be demanded, and will soon determine to resist all demands.

“Each time the labor pangs of the new era come upon x the present body politic, her strength and courage will q be found less, and the pains severer. All that society’s physicians—the political economists—can do for her ■relief will be to help and wisely guide the course of the inevitable birth—gradually to prepare the way for the . event They cannot avert it, even if they would; for God has decreed that it shall come to pass. Many of society’s physicians will, however, be totally ignorant of the real ailment and of the necessities and urgency of the case. They will undertake repressive measures; and -as each paroxysm of trouble passes away, they will take advantage di it to fortify the resistive appliances, and ■ will thereby increase the anguish; and while they will _ not long delay the birth, their malpractice will hasten - ’

the death of their patient; for the old order of things will die in the labor of bringing forth the new.

“All who realize the state of things coming should set themselves and their affairs in order accordingly. Thus we say to all the meek—the humble of the world, as well as the body of Christ: “Seek ye the Lord, ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment [His will]; seek righteousness; seek meekness, that ye may be partially hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.”

(Zephaniah 2:3) None will entirely escape the trouble, but those seeking righteousness and rejoicing in meekness will have many advantages over others. Their manner of life, their habits of thought and action, as well as their sympathies for the right, which will enable them to grasp the situation of affairs and also to appreciate the Bible account of this trouble and its outcome, will all conspire to make them suffer less than others— especially from harassing fears and forebodings.”

Wage Earners Paying for the War .

WHEN the purchasing power of the dollar in the spring of 1914 was compared with the purchasing power of the dollar in the spring of 1920, it was found that the dollar of 1914 was. worth $2.11 in current money; but an investigation discloses that the wage earners are not receiving 2.11 times as much now as in the spring of 1914, and that the difference between what they do receive and what they should receive amounts, in the total, to just about the total sum now being distributed by the corporations as extra or unusual profits, over and above the profits which, were made in normal times, before the war. The annual loss in wages of the worker is estimated at $4,717,440,-000; and the annual extra or super-profit of the corporations is estimated at $4,800,000,000. We now proceed to a demonstration of the facts, first discussing the income of the corporations and then noting what has happened to the workers. >

In the period of 1912-14 the net income of all the corporations in the United States in each of which the net annual income was over $1,000,000 was 8.7 percent on their capital, but in the period of 1916-18 the net income of the same corporations was 23.9 percent on their capital. Thus in four years the big corporations have earned about enough to return their whole in-.. vestment. It is estimated that the corporations ’ having each a net annual income of over $1,000.-.000 do about one-sixth of the business of the country, and that the combined super-profits of । all these corporations during each year from 1916 onward have been about $4,800,000,000. Now let us go back and see what has happened to the workers, - and then we will discuss this matter of super-profits more at length.

In the year 1914 the average weekly wage of the seven principal occupations in the clothing industry in New York city was $20.86 In the year 1920 the average wage in these same occupations was $34.93. This seems like a large increase in pay, does it not? And we read and hear a great deal about the fabulous wages paid to workers, do we notT Yet, if the buying power of the 1914 dollar be compared with the buying power of the 1920 dollar, the current wage rate should be $44.01, to buy the same things, and the wages these workers are actually receiving, $34.93, are only 79.4 percent of that amount. So we see that, as a matter of fact, if the workers were getting $20.86 in 1914 they are now getting but the equivalent of $16.56, and have sustained an actual loss in their weekly wages amounting, in purchasing power, to $4.30.

In 1914 the average weekly wage of the seven principal occupations in the book and job printing industry in New York city was $22.29. In 1920 it was $42.07. This also seems like a large increase in pay; yet when the buying power of the 1920 dollar is compared with that of the 1914 -dollar we find that these workers should be receiving $47.03 in order to make their earnings equal their former earnings in purchasing power. On the basis of the 1914 ‘ dollar__the present wages of these workers are $19.94, and they have sustained a net loss of $2.35 per week.

In 1914 the average weekly wage of the twentyeight principal occupations in the building trades in New York city was $26.38. In 1920 it was $45.96, but when the changed value of the dollar is taken into, consideration it should have been $55.66. Counted on the basis of the 1914 dollar, these workers are now receiving $21.78 per week, and have sustained a loss of $4.60' in the^r weekly wages.

x In 1914 the average weekly wage of the -thirteen principal occupations of New York harbor employes was $22.11. In 1920 it was $36.57; but to make the wages buy the same things they would have bought in 1914 they

should have been $46.65. Counted on the basis of the 1914 dollar these workers are now receiving the equivalent of $17.33, and have sustained a net loss of $4.78 in their weekly wage.

Taking together the clothing, printing, building and harbor industries, we have in New York lifty-five occupations whose weekly wages in 1914 averaged $24.15. The wages of these workers have been raised to $41.84, and according to most of the newspapers they should be satisfied and more than satisfied. But the fact of the matter is that their actual wages have been reduced, not increased, and it would now take an average wage of $50.96 to give them as much as they had six years ago. Stated in terms of their 1914 wages they are now receiving $19.83 each, so that the real wage question in . New York is whether the average worker, having had his pay cut $4.32 per week, should be ■satisfied. He is now receiving 82.1 percent of his former wage. His average annual loss of wages, based on the 1914 dollar, is $224.64, or, based on the 1920 dollar, $473.99.

Assuming that the average loss of wages the country over is the same as in New York, and that there are 21,000,000 families in the country, the total loss to the workers, on the basis of the । 1914 dollar is $4,717,440,000, which, as we have seen, is almost exactly the amount ($4,800,000,-000) of the super-profits of the corporations. Or, । on the basis of the 1920 dollar, the loss to the I workers is $9,953,798,400 per annum. In six years this amount would pay for the United States’-financial share in the World War.

This is what is happening. The workers are paying for the war; and when the bill is naidit will be paid to the friends, relatives, and associr ates of those whose profits out of the war are giving them $4,800,000,000 surplus profits each year over and above their usual profits. And,-' ’Tr.gcs cut to 82.1 percent of their loctiter vMiiiH. wiiat chance have the workers to hang on to their liberty bonds, which it is to the' public interest io have widely distributed! They must sell, and they are selling, or have sold, and it is to the damage of the country that this has been made necessary. It is nonsense to say that the workers are rolling in wealth. They are not “breaking even”, as is proved by the fact that the pawnshops are now doing a large business —always a proof that a pinch is being felt

Where the Money Goes

THE United States Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that in May, 1920, to maintain a family of husband, wife and three children, with a little insurance, education, a magari-no and a movie once in a while, but -no automobile, requires an income of $2,533.97 per year, or a daily w’age of over $8. Yet of the 1,183,000 men working for wages in Massachusetts only 15 percent get $2,000 or more, and one constantly hears the wage of $1 per hour referred to as most preposterously large, although the United States Government is authority for the statement that these wages are barely enough to maintain a family in comfort.

With capital getting three times the return that it got before the war, there is no question but that in the distribution of the total income of the country, labor is receiving a very much smaller proportion than it did, and that profits, interest and rent are squeezing the lemon dry. It is probably useless for us to warn big business that it is "spilling the beans”, but such is the fact, and we will not be recreant to our duty in telling the truth.

The country' made enormous savings by discontinuing the liquor traffic, savings which should have greatly ameliorated the condition of the workers and given them many luxuries hitherto enjoyed; but* these savings .have been appropriated by the moneyed interests, and prohibition has really done nothing for the workers that its advocates reasonably hoped, believed, expected and* preached that it would surely do.

It seems hard to read that one baby in every six dies when the father earns $550 or less per _year, and that only one in every sixteen dies when the father earns $1,250 per. year, and then to see how anxious the profit-takers are that the wages of the workers should not be permitted to rise to a point where they would interfere with the new and exorbitant profits to which they have been accustomed with the advent of this democracy-saving war.

In 1919 the worker on a yard of blue ^enim received 4.7 percent of the price, and the mill owners, received in profits on the same yard 24.74 percent of the price. From 1910 to 1919 the profits on denim rose 602 percent In 1919 the wa^es of the workers on denim could have been doubled, and the profits of the manufao*

turers would still have been twice as much -on > each yard as the workers received for making the yard.

In the-canning of com the labor cost increased £2 percent between 1916 and 1917, but the can-' Per’s profit increased 256 percent. While the < labor cost in making a ton of iron rose from 40 cents to 86 cents, the price of the iron itself rose from $15 per ton to $30 per ton. Big business is profit-mad and is misrepresenting the condition of the workers. Here are some of the 0 increases in profits of concerns dealing in the necessaries of life:

In the year 1918 the profits of the Standard Milling Company (flour) were 196 percent in excess of their profits in 1913; the profits of the American Woolen Company were 316 percent of their profits in 1914; the profits of the United States Rubber Company were 43 percent in excess of their profits in 1916, and the profits of the United Drug Company were 148 percent in excess of their profits in 1916.

y In the year 1919 the profits of the following ' । great concerns exceeded their profits over pre-J vious years by the amounts named:

American Hide and Leather Company—265% over 1914 American Ice Company--393% over 1914

United Fruit Company—_________547% over 1914

May Department Stores--------------174% over 1915

Pacific Milla (flour)_______________________318% over 1915

Manhattan Shirt Company__________275% over 1915

Endicott-Johnson Company (shoes)___353% over 1915

Cora Products Refining Company——639% over 1915 Burns Brothen (coal) 72% over 1916 American Linseed Company 780% over 1916

General Cigar Company _______ 84% over 1917

Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. (muslin)811% over 1917 Central Leather Company------103% over 1918

Cluett, Peabody Company (collars)--175% over 1918

For the period of 1916-18 the profits of the International Paper Company were 487 percent over the profits for the period of 1909-15, and > ' Wor the period 1916-19 the profits of the National

Enameling and Stamping Company (kitchenware) were 1178 percent over the profits ‘for 1909-15.

Wage* of Railroader*

\FTER a year or more of delay the railway 21 men were granted an increase of 21 percent in their wages during the past summer, an / amount estimated as about equal to the increased cost of living during the year they were waiting for the award. So the net result to the -

railway men is to leave them in the same condition as before the request for the advance was made. The increase affected 1,800,000 employes, and amounted to an average increase of $1 per day per man.

In 1915 the average wage of all railroad mep was $830 per year; in 1917 it was $1,004 per • year;in 1919 it was $1,436 per year; in January, 1920, it was at the rate of $1,587 per year and is now. in the neighborhood of $l,900 per year. The following statement, based upon the January, 1920, earnings plus the twenty percent recently added, shows, in order, the various positions in railroad work, beginning with the highest-paid positions and ranging down-to the lowest-paid positions. For convenient* the list is grouped into six general classifications.

Earning above $3,000 (pre-war equivalent $1,421) per year are the general officers, road passenger engineers and motormen, road freight engineers and motormen, general foremen, division officers, yardmasters, train dispatchers and directors, road passenger conductors, road freight conductors .and yardmasters' assistants (not yard clerks).

In the class earning above $2,400 but less than $3,000 (pre-war equivalent $1,137 to $1,421), are gang foremen, yard engineers and motormen, road passenger firemen and helpers, road freight firemen and helpers, traveling agents and solicitors, boilermakers, ear inspectors, yard conductors or foremen and machinists.

Ranging over $2,100 and less than $2,400 (pre-war $996 to $1,137} are the road freight brakemen and flagmen, passenger brakemen, ' air brakemen, electricians, blacksmiths, station masters and assistants, maintenance of way and structures foremen, yard brakemen (switchmen or helpers), assistant engineers and draftsmen, floating equipment employes, car repairers and hostlers.

With wages amounting to over $1,800 and less than $2,100 (pre-war $853 to $996) are the employes in outside agencies, station agents (non-telegraphers), yard firemen and helpers, agent telegraphers, telegraphers and telegraph operatives, interlockers, structural ironworkers, painters and upholsterers, foremen of construction gangs and work trains, telephone and block operators, telegrapher clerks, carpenters, levermen (non-telegraphers), other road trainmen.

Over $1,200 and less than $1,800 (pre-war $569 to $853) in their earnings are, in order, the yard switch-tenders, police and watchmen, masons and bricklayers, clerks, section foremen, mechanics’ helpers and apprentices, enginehouse men, drawbridge operatives, station service employes and unskilled laborers in construction gangs and work trains. At the bottom of the ladder, earning still less wages, are the section men, crossing flagmen, gatemen, messengers and attendants.

In consideration of the wages of railroad men, attention should always be given to the heavy expense for board and rooms away from home and the unusually heavy demand for shoes, clothing, overalls and watches.

We may not forget the financial side of the question. The railroads used to be able to earn about 4 to 4$ percent on their capitalization. Now they have been granted increases in freight and passenger rates sufficient to pay what was awarded the employes in the way of advanced wages and about twice as much more, to boost the net income to about 6 percent on the capitalization. The excuse made for this is that the profiteers and grafters are “pulling down” such heavy profits in other lines (profits which, as we have seen, are squeezed out of the wages of the common people) that money cannot be attracted to railroad investments at the rates they were formerly able to earn. Financiers call attention to the fact that a railroad has to pay four times as much interest to keep its rolling stock in operation as it had to pay before the war. The way this works out is as follows: Locomotives then cost $28,000 and now cost $75,000 each. Money then could be had at 5 percent and now cannot be had for less that 7| percent. Five percent on $28,000 is $1,400, while 7j percent on $75,000 is $5,625. So it is apparent that $5,600 would have hired the use of four w locomotives in 1914 where it will hire one now, and the locomotives then were as good as those made now.

The railroads played a sharp trick on the Pullman company. The latter wTas granted an increase in rates, whereupon the railway companies, thinking that more could have been gouged out of the people while the gouging was good, asked for and obtained consent to have an extra half-cent per mile charged to passengers in Pullman cars, the extra amount to go to the railway companies instead of the Pullman

companies. The Pullman rates are now so high that people ’ who could formerly afford the modest comfort of a night between sheets are now sitting up all night because they cannot afford to meet the greatly increased expense.

In, August the express companies obtained consent to boost their rates 12| percent on-one day’s notice, and further express rate increases are anticipated shortly. If these items presage -any of the promised reduction in the cost of living then they will operate differently from what such items have done in the past. Q

Wages of Government Workers -

IT IS harder for government employes to get their wages changed than for almost any other class of employes. The average pay of all government employes is $1,135 per year (prewar value $538); and 25 percent'of them earn less than $720 per year (pre-war $341). This tells its own story of silent suffering to those who have comprehended previous statements in this article. Many of these wage rates were fixed fifty years ago.

In the spring the Government sent letters to twenty-one engineering schools stating that it had civil service positions to offer, paying $1,200 as initial salary, but replies were received from some of the schools that the young graduates of these schools were having no difficulty in finding positions _ which paid them at once salaries ranging from $1,800 up.

The under-pay of custom-house inspectors in New York city has become a matter of public comment These men are experts, trained by long experience; yet they receive only $4 to $5 fdr a ten-hour day, and receive nothing for overtime, though they are often compelled to s'erve far into the night. They must buy their own meals and frequently have to pay for lodgings. Compare these earnings with those of longshoremen who receive $6.80 for an eight-hour dayW with $1.20 per hour for overtime and Sunday work.

In the month of May the city of New York advertised for help and offered to pay maximum salaries for certain specified occupations as follows: $960 for stenographers and typewriters and laboratory assistant, $1,200 for photographer and female nurse, $1,800 for chemist, $2,160 for assistant engineer, inspector of dredging, inspector of water supply, and mechanical draftsman and $2,500 for head cook.

Considerable excitement was caused in July when the city set aside $5,000,000 for raises of salaries of city employes (paid for by a bond issue, by the way). But the city fathers passed by their opportunity to specially aid the poorest paid workers and gave the same 20 percent increases to those already receiving $6,000 to $10,000 per annum that it gave to the $900 telephone operators or the $1,000 clerks. Thus the increases of salary to the highest-paid employes amount to more than the total yearly salary of the lowest-paid employes. All of this brings us back to the homely aphorism of the backwoods philosopher—“Them as has gits”.

Patrolmen in New York are not overpaid. The maximum salaries of patrolmen in different cities are as follows:

Buffalo _________$1,800 (pre-war value $853)

Chicago 1,800

New York 1,650 St. Louis 1,500 Philadelphia ___ 1,405

Kansas City____ 1,360 (pre-war value $644)

The work of a patrolman in New York is dangerous business at all times and especially no now, when, according to Governor Gardner of Missouri, in a letter addressed to the president of the Kansas City Bar Association, he declares that one citizen in every twelve was robbed in New York in the year 1919. This seems like an incorrect statement, but that is the way the statement comes to us. It seems almost incredible that society could be in such a deplorable condition, and it looks as if somebody must have been wrong when he preached and frothed and foamed about the. uplifting, ennobling, spiritualizing influences of war.

Not all state employes fare as well financially as Hulbert, the New York state executioner. He earns a fair salary as an engineer and receives _ $150 for each human being that he kills on ^behalf of the state. He reports that business has been good in 1920, and that he expects to make about $2,000 in this way during the current year.

Wages of Women Workers

THE average weekly wage of women in several states has been declared to be as follows: Tennessee____________________________$ 9.31

Nebraska 12.59 Michigan, sales________________________ 11.16

• Michigan, m’Pg--— 13.14

Wyoming -------------------— 11.46

In New York state the Consumers’ League, after a careful examination of girls’ budgets, stated that in 1918 a weekly wage of $14.80 was the minimum on whieh a girl could live. Similar figures for Eastern Pennsylvania, made under the direction of the Government, were that -$14.66 constituted the minimum in that district, no allowance being made for savings or health insurance. For the District of Columbia a Congressional commission decided that $15.50 is “the minimum wage upon which a woman without ■ dependents can maintain herself at a proper standard of living in the District of Columbia”. Add to this the fact that in a Government investigation of 1,760 working girls in New York state, in 1918, it was found' that four out of every five helped to support others besides themselves. We feel like saying in the same breath, “God bless the faithful, unselfish girls” and “O God, Thy kingdom come” to put an end to such inequalities.

The Government has made an investigation of the candy business in Philadelphia, that business being one of the lowest-paid industries in which women are employed, and Philadelphia being a representative American city.

In the year 1910 every man, woman, and child in the country had made for them nine pounds of candy at fifteen cents a pound. If you eat a pound of candy every six weeks you are eating your full share, and all that is good for you. - The chief candy-makers in every factory are the cooks, and these are always men. The dipping and packing is done by women. Fifty-seven percent of the workers in candy factories begin work before they are sixteen years of age. Dipping is an operation that requires much -skill and practice. An experienced and capable dipper can dip 150 pounds of candy per day.

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