WHO PAYS FOR LOW WAGES?
WHO PAYS FOR LOW WAGES? [From The Railway Maintenance of Way Employes Journal] In the first four months this year, charity organizations and public funds in 79 cities gave out $16,859,800 In...
...A little higher wage payments by employers, a little greater effort to keep men at work, and thousands of these families could have tided over without charity...
...In all, $12,91)5.000 was given by these corporations or 22 per cent of the total raised: 3:1,977 contributions came from them...
...The figures given above represent defeat for thousands of families this winter...
...Unemployment was the immediate cause which brought many of'these families to charity, in other cases it was sickness or another emergency...
...Low wages can not be compensated by contributions In charity...
...The bitter fact about this story is that in very' many cases defeat was not necessary...
...No self-respecting family wants to give up the struggle, no matter how hard it may be...
...American wage-earners face their need with courage, self-reliance, fortitude...
...They take the easy way and become dependents...
...Manufacturing concerns made the largest contribution...
...But grocers' bills and rent must, be paid and in the case above the bills were met by citizens' taxes, donations from individuate and contributions from corporations...
...While these gifts are commendable because they show a willingness on the part of corporations to share in the responsibilities of their community, there Is also another side to this problem...
...But the human cost, can not be measured...
...How many of the corporations which make gifts to community chests see to it that every one of their wage parners Is receiving a living wage...
...Citizens, corporations, generous individuals pay the financial cost of low wage: by giving to charity...
...Donations to charity from corporations have been increasing in recent years...
...A study of 129 communities inl929 shows that corporations pay nearly one-quarter of all the fimd.s raised by community chests for their welfare work...
...The public, does not realize how oflen low wages are the cause of appeals for charity...
...From The Railway Maintenance of Way Employes Journal] In the first four months this year, charity organizations and public funds in 79 cities gave out $16,859,800 In payments to those who had not even the barest, requirements of food and shelter...
...It is not easy to ask for charity...
...Some 275,000 families received this relief...
...Someone lias to pay for low wages and unemployment...
...chain stores, retail and wholesale merchants, banks and public utilities also helped...
...Mothers and children go to work, boarders are taken in, family possessions are sold, debts are run up at the grocer's, every resource is called upon to make ends meet...
...And many who have once ulven up never again have the courage to struggle for an independent living...
...But underlying these emergencies was the fact that income had not been enough to lay aside savings, and in very many cases not even enough to meet daily needs...
...Many a family that has struggled valiantly to make ends meet and give their rhlldren a fair start In lite, has had to give up merely because wages were too low or unemployment cut off income...
...The financial cost seems insignificant compared to the human cost...
Vol. 1 • September 1930 • No. 43
