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Show Minumum wage $3.00 per hour. That's whatSen. Prox-mire Prox-mire proposed on national TV the other day. Will the politician never learn? Raising Rais-ing the minimum wage doesn't raise the standard of living, it causes unemployment, unem-ployment, and accelerates inflation. -0- For instance the COUNTY NEWS could use about six hours of student or youth labor per day. But at $2.30 per hour, I put in an extra hour myself, and let the broom rest except for once a week. The front sidewalk doesn't get swept as often as necessary neces-sary and we wash windows quarterly instead of weekly. -0- Now, few small businesses can afford to spend $70.00 per week for these niceties, even though they'd like to keep the premises spruced up a little more. But it's not only that they don't like to turn down a young fellow looking for a parttime job, to pick up a little spending money when they could really use a handy -man. -0- Proxm ire's analysis was that providing a job for the kid would just eliminate a job on the other end of the spectrum for his old man. -0- Not so. The COUNTY NEWS doesn't have a job for a journeyman printer, press -man, or newsman. That man worth $12.00 to $15.00 per hour, if he's any good, already al-ready has a job, anyway. There's such a shortage that he can name his own ticket, live where he wants, and pick and choose. We know, we once fit that description. -0- How come there's such a shortage of journeymen? That brings us right back to the minimum wage. Most of these fellows were trained in the country shop like the COUNTY NEWS. You still see the ads today. "Wanted: Printer, country -trained.'! The thing about hiring a country -trained man was you knew he had a general knowledge know-ledge of the business. He'd learned to adapt, to improvise impro-vise in short, he'd learned learn-ed to think for himself. -0- A union trained printer was usually little more than an assembly line mechanic. He was taught just enough to fill a slot in the produc -tion line and often didn't even get familiar with other areas of the business beyond what he read In the union's book, on which he passed a test. -0- There's another alternative. alterna-tive. Trade schools. These are generally taught by some professor, with only a slight working knowledge of the business. Besides paying tuition, most graduates get canned from about their first three jobs, before they pick up enough practical experience to fake it as an apprentice. By this time, if he's got the stamina, he's ready to start about where he'd be the second sec-ond week at the COUNTY NEWS. -0- Because of the high minimum mini-mum wage, small weekly papers that used to train two to three young fellows a year, now don't train any. Large shops that used to train twenty-thirty apprentices appren-tices at a time, now rarely exceed union quotas; one for the first 10 journeymen, one for each additional 20 men. Technology kept pace for a while, but now we're falling fall-ing behind. The same is true of all trades, whether it be plumbing, electricians, pipe fitters, boilermakers, welders, weld-ers, mechanics, beauticians, barbers, or what have you. -0- There's talk of a youth conservation corps similar to the CCC . But it won't work. Youngsters who can draw unemployment compensation or welfare checks equivalent equiva-lent to the minimum wage won't leave home to join theYCC. In fact, it's difficult to get those on rockingchalr money or welfare rolls to leave that (Continued on Page 2) 1 HERE'S MORE ABOl'T JUST BETWEEN security for a steady job. We've known of several ; instances in Beaver County where the individual had to be threatened with being turned in to authorities, before be-fore he'd accept a job at minimum wages. -0- Ironically, labor as a whole think they are entitled to unemployment un-employment compensation because they've paid for it and earned it. Phooey! Business Busi-ness pays the whole tab for unemployment insurance. In the long run, the consumer pays because business must pass on all expenses to the consumer or go broke. -0- Carter and Proxmire think the government can do abetter abet-ter job of putting the country back to work than private enterprise. Along with too m any other legislators, they are appropriating TAX DOLLARS for make -work jobs. Make -work jobs that will, by law, pay no more than a minimum wage. Meanwhile, bureaucratic red tape, regulations, controls con-trols and a too -high minimum mini-mum wage are keeping private pri-vate industry from providing jobs to both ends of the spectrum. spec-trum. -0- Meanwhile ye ol' Ed will continue to wash his own windows, sweep his own floors, wash presses, stock cabinets, etc., because he's the only one who'll work that cheap. |