| Show Wages in the Year 1851 Failed to Meet Cost of Living Editors Editor's Note This is the first of oC a Thanksgiving week series by Bruce Catton staff writer for tor The The Telegram and NEA Service which contrasts the tho p present sent with the past and shows what wo we have to be rul for tor this ls Thanksgiving day Today's story shows the tha great In Increase Increase increase In- In crease in the prosperity of ot the av average av- av working mal man By BRUCE CATTON CATION An atmosphere of or colonial AmerIca Amer Arner- ica lea hangs hangs- over Thanksgiving The very word suggests old New England England England En En- gland farmhouses rolling feld elci of ot stac stacked ed corn enclosed in snake snake snake-rall fences old old fashioned over loaded with hungry folks toUs on the way l to a a record breaking dinner at grandpas grandpa's place in the country The Tho era of skyscrapers automobiles and radios adios hardly seems to fit A life lite that t Us used cd to be simple ha hag UIS grown frown complex Haste Hasto has replaced d leisure Restless desire haS baa pushed I to the wall The aim I that brought Thanksgiving Into nto being as a heartfelt rite has given way ta to a hustle and bustle bUstI wherein the day Is simply an occasion occasion occasion occa occa- sion for tor football games and hearty dinners v 5 Some of us us as the Indian summer summer sum sum- mer haze drifts over the country countryside with its old age-old harbinger of ot autumn autumn au- au plenty and rest look back rather ather longingly to the days that used to be We Ie feel that If It life lICe had haj ewer conveniences then it also had bad fewer ewer annoyances that people 1 somehow were better off oCt happier richer Icher in things thinS that count We talk alk about the good old days w with th a sort of ot regret A AU right why not look Into the matter Just how hov good j were those good old days das Have the passing years ears really brought Us new things to o be bo thankful for or Is la ThanksgivIng log Ing ng nowadays a a. bit of ot a Joke see aCe e how tile the av average rage mans man's lot I in t the e old days compares with his ls lot Jot in ip the year 1923 1928 ff The average man which man which means you jou OU and I and the rest of ot u us has hasto hasto to work worl for fo his living i ia is isa isa a regrettable fact act tJ that a mans man's happiness hap Jap- depends very the conditions under which lie he does o s his work work his his hours his pay his ability to better himself elt and so on JB a I Now tI ese soot goon old d days day v when according to tradition dollar bill would Keep a roc ries for fOl 30 d days s and a co could ld be had f or o an al annual re o greater than tItan it would brin bring nowadays nowadays nowa nowa- days were verc far tar from pert perfect t in those respects Mark MarIe sald that Coopers Cooper's Indians belonged to an extinct t never ex ex- isted The good old when the tho working man was In clover were similarly 5 days that ever dawned When J was writing of ot d inalienable rights the rights the papers C carrying ad ad advertisements the return of runaway apprentices Slaves w were held hi Iri colon Indentured Indentured Inden Inden- Inden i. i step above aboe e th them m were wp common The working man never drea d' d dot ot of calling him blip sel self sunless independent by a lucky stroke he ho y hands ona on a bit bitof bitof of ot farm lando a fishing smack of his own a a aBut But you ou dont don't need to carry your your- res researches b back bac k to colonial coloni l times to find that ti old days dan had their de In I l fW the carpenters or of t were on strike Th They y Were vere get In a day and were Conservative t horrified at al f 0 s such ch gr ed It was freely predicted pre pre- such wages would demoralize demoralize de lIe- de- de moralize tle te whole working working- class Greeley of ot the New York Tribune Tribune- d to Investigate lie ile figured out t the thc weel weekly ly expenses of a a. ca carpenter P with a wife and three ures' ures esi 51 nd got sot the following Bowing fig fig- Fl Flo Flour 62 r 62 cents sugar 32 12 cents butter buJer 62 cents milk 14 H cents cents- meat potatoes 50 cents tea and fe 25 S' S Cents t J cl candles candles' a and aM dOh Oil n l 14 cents f fuel 40 cents e Household articles 25 cents 20 cents rent 3 clothes 2 2 newspapers 12 cents sundries 40 ceo This totaled 1037 the carpenter carpenter carpenter carpen carpen- ter worked six days a eek ek his Income income In- In come under the oM pay scale would be just oi ot this under the new scale e would have havea a a. margin of oC 13 cents week out of or which to start a a. savings ings account pay doctors doctor's bills nd and indulge in such luxuries as jils fancy dictated dic die m a 51 W. W Now It must 6 be borne in mind that the hen as now was one of the most highlY paid of ot working work work- ing lag men Bricklayers and founders got more but nearly every other classification Jl ti liil those days got less Shot Shot-n Shoemakers akers bookbinders printers cabinet makers and hatters averaged en 4 and 7 a week Day laborers lot tot zot well a a. few years yearn before this Philadelphia l strike a group of ot Irish laborers who had been work work iu g- g gin i in Brooklyn for 65 cents a a. d day struck for tor 85 cents The or promptly took on a S German German- im- im gang of ot nf landed ly-landed rma d when the strikers rs tried to his place place not not too toe gently gal jio doubt the doubt the militia was called chase them awa away Furthermore you OU might examine that budget budet which Horace Greeley prepared and see what it leaves out The Tho item Greeley said was supposed to cover salt pepper vinegar starch soap soda yeast and n noir x w and then some eggs cheese etc for 40 cents a week Note too that at this family amU of three chil- chil only a pint of ot milk a day with extra charge for such bacilli bacUli a ln lurk in the dairies of ot that tha d day am a a JAnd And that is not all Most workmen of those days were not ct paid solely in cash In nearly all alj factories that triumph of or Yankee i ingenuity the company store stor ex existed ex cx- isted and the worker was compelled to to take a good 00 1 part of ot his wages in trade frade The storekeeper fleeced him dividing the profits with the employer it has b been bep n estimated estl esti mated that these overe overcharges arg s cut the workers worker's pay by at least 25 per cent I England had already prohibited the practice by law but w when wen en certain American mill mm owner w wa was told of ot this fact he remarked 0 This is a free country and we wedo wedo do as we please Such were the good old da days as asfar asfar s far as the working man was con con- There must have been in art unquenchable optimism abroad In inthe a athe the land for lor such a a. man roan to celebrate cele J brate Thanksgiving ing with an any true tru devotion and one is tempted to wonder if It the honest toner toiler would have hae known a turkey if it he hc had ice On one S Tomorrow Tomorrow Some Some other of the good old days |
