Show A millionaires billionaires BILLION AIRES WAGES two stand in suggestive proximity among the news of last week the first informs vs thai sir johnd rockefeller is about to draw as his share of a dividend of 10 a share that has just been declared by tho standard oil company the total dividend is and as mr rockefeller owns BO per cent of tho capital stock he will also own 50 per cent of the dividend for the corresponding sp period of last year the sharo price was only 7 the increase 0 3 explains the advance recently made by tho company in tho price of oil that Is the tune played by sir rockefeller to which the nation at large Is invited compelled in fact to dance and now for the second item the standard oil wagon drivers of chicago are munificent wage of 2 a day rent food fuel light and car fare cost these poor serfs a day this leaves 3 cents a day to dress the family and for the purchase of extras and luxuries not content with this noble margin or possibly having heard of sir rockefellers Rocke fellers dividend of these bold men interviewed the standard oil manager in chicago and stated their case to him he admitted that fa was not exactly a princely wage and that the expenditure of 3 cents a day tor clothing would require some careful management even in chicago but an increase of pay was out of the question he had his orders and the only surprising thing about the whole business is that these men should have wasted their time in proffering so obviously hopeless a request it is not easy to comment upon these things at least in of recognized propriety there are many autocracies in the world and it may be almost questioned it the autocracy of is not the most cruel and the most unscrupulous of them all the competition of modern life haff delivered these men body and soul into the hands of mr rockefeller and the old time ne gro slave was better cared for the slave did at least represent a unit of value but to the modern unit of labor such as these men there Is no value whatever because the supply is greater than the demand the lot of these wagon drivers is certainly a most wretched one that such as they remain honest that they remain peaceable is a golden tribute to human nature but the nation itself may well asic it it can afford such wholesale degradation of its best manhood if it can afford to see the creation of a serf caste under the shadow of free laws and of free institutions |