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354

THE COMMUNIST

[[3 Columned Table]]

|North Dakota|13.05|based on min. and max. basic wage of $18 to $30 per week|

|New York|13.70|(a) based on max. basic wage of $47.50 per week. Min. $18  (b) number of children|

|Oregon|10.00|number of children|

|Washington|11.87|ditto|

|West Virginia|9.37|ditto|

|Average for U.S.|10.44|(a) amount weekly wages earned  (b) number of children|


From the foregoing it is obvious that the life of the wage earner is not valued highly by the several States in the union. To this severe treatment of survivors and dependents of deacesed workers must be added the Federal Government itself.  The class domination of the bourgeois legislatures is laid bare beyond question when one compares the size of their own salaries with those allowed the widow of the victim of capitalist production.

  Even the so-called liberal States which allow a lump sum to the dependent do not grant on the average more than $4,000. What can the widow do with this money?  If she opens up a petty retail business the chances are that at the end of a year or two her money will be lost, due to big capitalist competition and exploitation of trusts and lack of experience in retail trade.  If she stays at home and eats up the money she cannot by any means stretch it beyond five years.  If she goes to work and this the average widow will be compelled to do, the welfare of the children is jeopardized as the capitalist State makes no provisions for taking care of them.  They grow up wild in the streets.

  In these States which allow a designated sum for fixed periods the dependent widow does not find herself in better circumstances, as the several legislatures provide sums which are barely sufficient to keep body and soul together for one person---let alone bringing up children.  But even here the period of payment is generally completed in six years.  Those States which extend the period to eight or ten years diminish the weekly average and proclaim the cheapness of a wage earner's life through the back door.  Thus the great sovereign Commonwealth of Pennsylvania allows an average weekly allowance of $6.75 for a period of six years to the dead earner's dependents.

There are six States and the Federal Government which have ostensibly accepted the "humane" position of granting pensions to