104 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
that what would be a living wage for one man or family 
would be poverty or luxury for another. But the fact remains 
that wages must be set in reference to the cost of living. 
Tabor otherwise becomes a commodity, and unless certain 
standards of living are predicated in any wage dispute, we 
shall get our labor down to a point where certain standards 
of citizenship also are forgotten. In spite of all we may say, 
economic status does affect intelligence and morals. And if 
we are to force labor down in a comparative market to a 
standard lower than the American average, we shall also 
force our nation’s ideals down to a low standard. 
It is begging the question to declare that a man with five 
children should have a “living wage” lower than a man with 
ten children. It is cheap to point out the fact that a man 
whose family is practically self-supporting must have a dif- 
ferent living wage from the man with a houseful of little 
ones. For all that is beside the point. When an average 
man’s family income is ascertained he should have enough 
every Saturday night to live decently in self-respect and 
educate his children. If he has no children, that is his loss, 
and if he has more than the average number of children, 
that is his gain. And the average man’s wage should not 
be changed because of the exceptional man’s advantage or 
disadvantage. . . . 
When a living wage is established for the unskilled, then 
let every man’s skill and intelligence have free play and let 
him sell these in the best market and for his own advance- 
ment. That is the philosophy of the living wage. 
 EONARD WOOD, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. A, GOVERNOR-GEN- 
ERAL OF CUBA AND OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS! 
He should receive a wage that not only permits him to 
keep body and soul together, but enables him to lay by some- 
thing for the future. 
1 «Teonard Wood on National Issues,” compiled by E. J. David, Double- 
day, Page & Co., 1920, p. 21.