Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1907 — Low Wage Scale. [ARTICLE]

Low Wage Scale.

“Columbus,” said a local antiquary, “got a salary of $320 a year—less than $1 a day. His captains got SIBO a year apiece. His crew got $2.25 a month. To equip the expedition that discovered America cost $2,500. The to’tal cost of discovering .America was $7,200. “Lawyers nowadays, especially corlioratiou lawyers, think nothing of earning $1,000,000 a year. In the reign of Edward IV. a baronet entered in his diurnal, or diary: “ ’Paid to"*Roger Fylpott, learned in the law, for his counsel, 3 shillings, with 4 pence for his dinner.’ “Ministers often make to-ddy $20,000 or $30,000 a year. The late Dr. Talmage made $60,000. Yet John Knox only got $220 a year, or $4 a week, and that was $1 more a week than Scottish, judges got. “Small salaries those,” concluded the antiquary “but we must remember that in that epoch there were fio trusts to Inflate prices, and a dollar went a long way. In fact, a Christmas dinner for a family of six would have cost in John Knox’s time, for the turkey, 10 cents; cranberry sauce, 2 cents; potatoes, 1 cent; turnips, 1 cent; celery, 1 cent; plum pudding, 2 cents—-total, 17 cents, or less than 3 cents a head.”