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Show THE CITIZEN ,v, Washington, and yet it appears he has said enough to convince who hold their countrys interests above the patriotic Americans, that what we need is further immigration restriciton, rather in the present three per cent regulation. jlgn, let-u- p ( en bo SHIBBOLETH OF A LIVING WAGE. Hi to s e oc on that distinguished the fugitive living wage mites at the Jordan fords, the shibboleth of a Like Banquos ghost, it will not offle down through the ages. the cry of the Gileadites jke . upward of seven hundred years or since mankind first this off the shackles of serfdom and became a wage earner of industry, to try question has risen up to plague the masters mils of politicians and take the sunshine out of' the life of the For fraternity. ck .ai in j. )w oi must eat; so, also must his wife and children eat and few clothes. Accordingly during the Feudal period provisions made that the workers might earn just enough to keep them actually starving and were given enough rough cloth to cover nian a )t nakedness. nt later period mankind overthrew this form of slavery and From somewhere around a cent per day ne real wage earners. centuries ago wages have been advanced to keep pace with ised production until today they have reached the highest aver- n es rai n a Simultaneously with the in the wage has come an inevitable advance in the cost of Every time wages are increased the cost of vital commodities This has been due in not long remained in the background. to the increased cost of production, owing to the increase in the and to the further fact that the manipulators of the products s real producers always take advantage of the opportunity to higher profits when the basic wage advances. s in the undeniable affirmation that the cosmos may be either itely large, or infinitely small, and the people be not the wiser, matter of a living wage and its reflection in the cost of living, be either extraordinarily high or unspeakably low ; and if the corresponds to the costs of commodities, the worker will be the wiser. He would be just as satisfied with a ten-cewage will support him and his family in comparative comfort as he ibe with a wage seven times as high as the prevailing scale and the costs of the necessaries of life kited to correspond. From this we must deduce that there is no such thing as a real wage now extant ; that there cannot be such a wage devised of the fact that commodities always react to any advance in and even go just a little beyond normalcy in the upward trend t under the prevailing system of supply and demand what may itute a living wage in 1922 may be a slave wage in 1923. rom these deductions we easily arrive at the conclusion that a wage aside from being the shibboleth of the ages, is also a on and a perpetual nightmare. The employer of labor in this nercialized age has always paid wages according to the amount Auction in his business. When it has been large and his profits :5pondingly great, he has not hesitated to give labor a high wage ; 'his business has languished and profits declined, he has deflated and lie has done all this regardless of the cost of living. city of labor during rush times always tends to advance the living regardlcss of the competency or ability of the individual worker. ere seems to be no effective way to establish a living wage first doing away with competition in the labor field as well field of commerce. Any commission or body of legislatures il in the fixation oi a living wage without taking into account Nation of the cost of living. To stabilize the cost of living point itl h( ui iq ad- - the world has ever known. is he . u nt ns ,1 possible figure commensurate with the supply and demand in the labor mart, insist that the cry of calamity raised against the fixing of real and not imaginary fair prices for vital commodities, so that the cost, of living may .become a fixed and not a constantly fluctuating problem, is the lusty shout of the profiteer, who sees in the stabilization of prices the vanishing point of any big profits he may garner at the expense of the people, when supplies are either short, or the storage plants are filled to the ceilings with some vital product that has been cornered. The fixing of a living wage, which may be construed to mean a wage on which a married worker may live and raise his family in comfort, together with a surplus which will make it also a saving wage appears to be a dizzy dream under the present competitive system. If a sack of flour was worth so much per sack and would remain stationary, according to a fixed price, then a living wage corresponding to the fixed price of the sack of flour could be deduced. This reasoning holds good for all other vital commodities. It appears that a living wage for our workers is the real desideratum of the people of this nation; but how to fix such a wage is the burning question of the hour, without upsetting age old ideas and habits of mind anent the free and easy way we have of doing business and exacting all the traffic will bear. Patently we shall have to journey some distance along the pathway of right and justice for our g workers before we arrive at what will actually constitute a real liv-in- wage without taking into consideration the competition in the labor field as well as the fact that the varying cost of living always vitiates any attempt to arrive at such a wage. ABSENT VOTERS' LAW AND THE NOMINEE. Attorney General Harvey H. Clug is out with a manifesto to all party nominees, calling attention to the evident mandate and intent of the law of 1919, which makes it mandatory upon successful candidates to file certificates of nomination with the County Clerk, of their respective counties, at least twenty-si- x days in advance of the day of the election. This manifesto is made at this early date because of the Absent Electors law of 1919, which provides that absent voters ballots must be printed and in the hands of the clerks of the respective counties of the state at least fifteen days before the day of election. In this regard Attorney General Guff says: is my opinion that Absent Voters- ballot law takes precedence of conflicting sections of the statutes of Utah, and that in order to giye proper and necessary working effect to this law, the time of filing of certificates of nomination with county clerks should be construed to automatically advance to a date not less than eleven days prior to the day upom which the clerk is required to prepare, have printed and delivered, Absent Voters Ballots, which is fifteen days prior to the day of election. Thus, making the date for filing certificates of nomination not less, than twenty-si- x days prior to election, or October 12, 1922. This, will allow time for County Clerks to have printed and ready for delivery valid absent voters' ballots.. Atomey General Guff advises that all political parties interested in having nominees placed on the official ballot for the November election, hold conventions, prepare their certificates and arrange all matters connected with the nomination of party candidates for office early enough days prior to permit the filing of such certificate not less than twenty-si- x to election day. lt - IJUt And it is said that the latest edict for Miladys dress is that they shall be lower and longer. Well, who cares which extremity is the most But those nifty ankles will sure be missed. exposed ( controlling price must be tabooed. vital commodities must be fixed at rates that will permit fixed to function as desired. This idea of control of prices 1 be unscientific, uneconomical and a sure means to kill initiative. It is also held to be impracticable and the pre-- J industrial calamity. ers who sense in the present fixing of wages at the lowest of 1 supply and demand The finest example of pure bunk is the fixing of a maximum and a minimum coal price. The intrenched producers unfailingly kite the price up to the maximum and let the people pay or fight the government. Farmers never riot. The minds of people who stick close to nature never turn toward destruction or direct action. |