The more things change.....................

      Because of the high wartime inflation—the cost of imports was six times higher than usual—Henry found it difficult to fill the civilian jobs at the arsenals despite offering exorbitant wages of $30 a month along with a suit of clothes and another suit every year along with the normal army rations.  He wrote Washington that he would add an allotment of half a pint of rum per day to sweeten the deal.  

-Mark Puls,  Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution