| Show TOE THE STANDARD OP OF LIFE san francisco chronicle mrs bernard bosanquet author of rich and poor and the standard of life and other studies is an english writer who takes a distinctly common sense and practical view of certain social and industrial problems which have been mystified by a multitude of philosophical dreamers and with marked clearness and perspicacity enforces them to simple rational rati ohal and apparently patently ly effective solutions her standard of life I 1 is an especially thoughtful and suggestive treatise land and her discussion of its relations to what has been designated the living wage commends it to the consideration of the american as well as to the industrial economist of the united kingdom the standard of life in the sense explained by the author is the standard by which every man consciously or unconsciously orders his life and estimates his success or failure it includes as a whole his hopes and ambitions the food shelter and raiment balm nt with which he Is i measurably content coment and the occupation and wage with which he is apparently satisfied by the he accepts is determined his well being moral and economical and it applies to some extent to classes as well as to individuals divi duals duLls what is called the living wage is defined as meaning the least upon which a man can live and maintain the standard of living which he has set up tor for himself as necessary to his leading a satisfactory life everything else being equal the ajr services at a fixed per them diem wage of the min man who ts is amply fed and comfortably housed are worth more to the employer than the services of the man who is inadequately fed and uncomfortably sheltered their relative capacities for work may be fairly measured by the difference in the labor value of the half starved and the well fed horse it is therefore to the advantage of the employer that his workman should bring to his task the strength and endurance of liberal nourishment and the alacrity of a cheerful heart As a simple matter of business then aside from dumani earlam considerations well fed labor as a rule ririe commends itself to the employer as profitable and thus predisposes him to the payment of the living wage of a generous living standard according to the calculations of some writers an average italian workman consumes no more than about one half the food allowance of a frenchman and one ter of that of an englishman the ex 1 tent to which labor is affected by nutrition is summed up lip by professor bittl in these words an Eng englishman lIthman eats more and better than a german germany and works more and better than a german ap american America meats eats more and better than a german or ft a frenchman or an englishman 11 and works more and better batter than thai any of them it has become an axiom of the amer 1 lean ican protectionist that cheap wages tend to make cheap men and it is none the less true that cheap men tend to make cheap wages the man whose standard of living is low and in america this standard includes something more than mere food and shelter and is content to submit on the bare husks of life will soon find himself reconciled to wage rates which will enable him to procure nothing better statistics show that since the beginning of the present century money wages in england have been advanced more than 50 per cent with a shortening of 20 per cent in the hours of daily badly labor while there has been no general increase in the prices of the general commodities of popular consumption similar improvements m prove ments in the conditions of labor but somewhat more emphatic have occurred in the united states during the same period these general and beneficent industrial changes with the passing years of this century of unprecedented human advancement have undoubtedly been largely due to a steadily increasing betterment in the standards of living of the laboring classes of both countries the luxuries of the decade have become the necessities of the next and the food of the rich has become more and more the fare of the poor the laborer has been constantly extending the list of his wants and adding to his personal comforts and the living wage has been advanced forced up and may perhaps be said to meet the increasing expense of his maintenance it was not the increased wage of the laborer that multiplied his wants it was rather his enlarged wants that compelled the betterment of his wage partly through natural adjustments of dt prices and profits and partly as a result of his augmented productive capacity in consequence of hs standard of living hence it is not unreasonably held that although subject to mank checks and limitations according to the conditions of different times and places to th tha 10 lo long nit rim jt it is the standard of life aimed at by any class which determines what the wages of the individual of that class class will be there is manifestly too much truth in this broad assumption for it to be dismissed as a vagary however it may seem to ito the re bubat ing forces of supply and demand in this ifa enlightened age when the sentiment of mankind is growing yearly more of industrial in abasement and human the prevailing tendency is toward a fairer cUrI division DDn of the proceeds and rewards of tebor a a progressive improvement in the coa ciola diction of the producing efte classes ses imd and a commensurate increase tn in the living wage another and no less promoter ot this tendency is the widening spirit that is everywhere asseri asserting ting itself in government ana ana slowly en its inda abw as well as its political loal demands under every constitutional government the collective power of the masses is commanding a respect which Is appreciably shared by its fits constituents and the well being of the worker who in a little lit itlie more thama item a century ceri tury has grown from a serf to a citizen is beo becoming oming the first consideration I 1 of every civilized land the improved industrial indus trial condition of the laborer has also tended to ito his go eo odail advancement or rather to the narrowing of the gulf which for ages ak divided him from the ithe governing govern tog classes in his upward struggle he las hias been met quite half way by the aristocracy and ednd even by the of england whose broken fortunes have in many st stances lances forced chedi into commercial literary and other occupations h fifty years baglo would have been betow bellow the dignity of a wellborn well born gentleman bulwer lytton was wais mong the first firitz to ito break the aristocratic barrier by taking the editorship of a magazine maga aine and now english earls eaas and baronets baranets baro nets are serving customers with boals vegetables and other marketable marke lable commodities and are silent partners in hundreds of mercantile and houses thus lare the titled classes aming adding to bo the fahe dignity of labor by engaging in ks ata pur pursuits and disregarding the conventions in im the vay of a freer intercourse with it in the united states where manual labor is better fed bebber clothed bett belt ber housed and better beitf rewarded than in any other part of the world the he ex conditions of the laboring classes a are aire re f due to ke form of govern merit based upon the independence and intelligence of its citizenship and implying the necessity of general wage rates large enough to enable the wage worker to educate as well as properly feed and shelter hla his household A people content to remain halt half starved and in ignorance are incapable Inoa pable of self government there is nothing noth robent in the patriotism of an empty stomach nor Is there any assurance of national stability in an empty head successful democratic government depends upon an intelligent self reliant and amply nurtured olti and to bo provide the living wage adequate to the maintenance of these popular conditions in the U united states labor has been assisted by land bounties and immunities and taxes have been bean laid upon imports to protect it from the blight of unrestricted competition the average living standard of the american Ameri caun laborer skilled and unskilled is far above that of the most favored of the working classsen class clase ses of the old world and the statesmanship to ie shortsighted and unpatriotic that would bespeak it otherwise tt it is the liberal xv mv UW standard of labor with its ever hiar ln creasing easing wants that is building up the te tremendous interstate commerce of the republic and swelling its foreign trade to mighty aggregates in proportion as a people consume they will produce and toy by the combined volume of both is ds their greatness as a nation measured american 1 abor can gain nothing in the end hut but discomfort and degradation by reducing its wants to the scant necessities essi ties of mere andral subsistence on the contrary it Is its ita patriotic as well as a its ia personal duty to expect in return for the honest toil of its h hands ands v fair share of the creature camf comforte com orte forta of life and to instant upon a standard of living consistent with its t dignity and malih dod with the assurance that the living wage to maintain it will in some manner be provided through adjustments of ever changing industrial and comperda com merda conditions |
