There was, however, no charity in any way involved. That was not
generally understood. Many employers thought we were just making the
announcement because we were prosperous and wanted advertising and they
condemned us because we were upsetting standards--violating the custom
of paying a man the smallest amount he would take. There is nothing to
such standards and customs. They have to be wiped out. Some day they
will be. Otherwise, we cannot abolish poverty. We made the change not
merely because we wanted to pay higher wages and thought we could pay
them. We wanted to pay these wages so that the business would be on a
lasting foundation. We were not distributing anything--we were building
for the future. A low wage business is always insecure.
Probably few industrial announcements have created a more world-wide
comment than did this one, and hardly any one got the facts quite right.
Workmen quite generally believed that they were going to get five
dollars a day, regardless of what work they did.
The facts were somewhat different from the general impression.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222