Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1912 — Wage Earners [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Wage Earners

Should Seek Largest Income From Labor

By CHARLES L. BAINE

NO ORDINARY wage earner can save enough to escape from th® wage-earning class. If by the ordinary wage earner we mean the average wage earner then we are dealing with a general average wage of considerably less than sl2 per week for th® fifty-two weeks in the year. The present cost of bare necessities of life prohibits the saving of any considerable amount from the meager wages of the average wage earner. Certainly he cannot saye enough in his prime to maintain himself in his old age. This would be true of those without family responsibilities, while average wage earner with a family to support can save nothing at all unless the standard of living of the family is reduced to meet advancing living costs; and then only a small sura which a brief sickness willjabsorb. It is the families of the wage earners that populate the country. Wealthy families are not usually noted for large numbers of children. I he wage earner’s family must fee supported before there can be’anv saving for the future, and when that is done there can be little or nothing left. Our large savings bank deposits as a rule belong to persons who are not . in the wage-earning class. Some wage earners follow trades that are highly skilled and exceptionally well paid, hi- possible for some of these to save a portion of their wages, but it should l»e noted that these an- extraordinary wage earners, and even among these none of them may hope to escape the wage earning class by saving alone. A young 1 man asked a prominent American statesman how to acquire riches, and the answer was: “Put yourself in a position to profit by the labor of other people.” The wage earner who escapes from the wage-earning class does thia. His savings are used as the basis of speculation or investment, which, if successful, yields him a profit on the labor of other people. If the wage earner builds himself a home he is gratifving the homeowning instinct, but if he couph-s with it a tenement to rent he is deyelthe desire of the capitalist to profit by the labor of other people. It is well, for the ordinary wage earner to be prudent and to save what he can, but not with the idea of escaping thereby from the wageearning class, lest his wings be singed by the flame. The ordinary wage earner will do well to give more effort to improv® the condition of the wage-earning class through trade union work and less to an attempt to escape from the wage-earning class by an unsuccessful imitation of the methods of capital. All wage earners should seek the largest income from their own

labor rather than to seek to profit by the labor of their fellows.