Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-26
PITTsBURG. SUNDAY. OCT. a6. 1890.
COMPETITION AND WAGES.

Before the effect OF cutting of the supply
of gas from the pudding furnaces can pos
sibly have made itself felt in the coal trade,
word comes from up the Monongahela river
that the demand for the labor of the miners
is getting ahead of the supply. This is ex-
plained by the fact that large share of the
miners have found other occupations, the
development of new industries al such places
as Belle Vernon and Charleroi having al
forded them employment of other kinds. The
result is that as the winter approaches the
coal mines have not enough men to keep up
the usual output, and as a consequence it is
becoming necessary for better wages to be
offered in order to secure workmer. If the
new departure in gas, in this city, should
cause return of the mills to coal, it would
emphasize this necessity to the extent of a
a radical increase OF wages
Such an outlook is exceedingly gratifying
to the miners and all who are glad to see an
enhancement of earnings for men whose in
dustry is always severe and generally iii
paid. But it has an additional value in
illustrating the error of the principle that
the free action of competition pulls down
wages and grlnds the laboring class down into
poverty. Such a doctrine can only arise
from failure to perceive that where COM
petition is perfectly untrammeled and even,
the competition of employers for the labor
OF workingmen will have its effect in raising
wages just as much as the competition of
laborers for employment will in bringing it
down. This especial case is a good exam
pie of the operation of this principle. New
industrial establishments in the Monon-
gahela Valley created demand for labor,
IN addition to that furnished bv the coal
mines, and MANY OF the coal miners found
employment there. Now when the coal
mines wish to increase their output the COM
petition makes 1t necessary for them to offer
additional inducements before they can get
their men back. The same demand for COM
mon labor in this city has raised wages; and
where, 4 year or two ago, men could be had
for 81 % or 81 so per dav, contractors now
lind good men scarce at 81 75 and 81 90.
The reason why the operation of this in
hueuce is not more frequently seen, is partly
because people refuse to see it, but more
generally because the organization of in
dustry is such as to check the freedom OF its
action on one side while leaving it free on
the other The competition OF half q dozen
corporations for the labor of 100, 900 miners
in the anthracite regions cannot be as free
as the competition of the 100, 900 wage work
ers tor the means of earning food for their
families; and when the halE dozen corpora
tions unite they are successful in throwing
the action OF competition all on one side.
The same thing can be seen, in varying de-
grees, throughout the entire gamut OF In
dustrial organization, and it is the effort to
correct this uneYenness OF competition which
justi6eS the organization of labor unions.
These organizations sometimes fail and
sometimes succeed TO the extent of throwing
the uueyenness of competition all to the
other side. But that in all such cases where
the one-sideduess of competition oppresses
labor, the FAULT is due not to competition
but TO the organizations which obstruct it.
appears from two facts which are almost
universal. The first is that wherever the
industry of district or locality is under the
control of single corporation or combina-
:ion SO that laborer has got to 60 elsewhere
TO find competing employment, there the
labor of that industry is worst paid. The
second is that in the places where the COM
petition ofemployers most nearly approaches
perfect treedom-as in locality of small
tarmers-there the share of the products of
industry assigned to labor is the greatest.
These facts indicate very clearly that the
most thorough method of improving the
condition OF laborers is to turn the effort in
the direction of increasing the competition
for their labor. This can be sought for, not
only in the way OF facilitating the transfer Of
labor from the points where it is abundant
TO those where it is needed; but in the way
of creating an additional demand. Every
laborer who is able to work for himself in a
small way, adds to the demand for labor bv
making himself his own employer. Every
successful cooperative or proft-sbaring en-
terpEise increases the propOrtionate demand
for labor by making the laborers to greater
or less degree their own employers The
unions meet, or aim to meet, the temporary
urgency by checking the competition of
laborers for wages; but the lasting way in
which to secure the fullest share of the
products Of industry, is to use every means
to make the competition for labor as active
and uutrammeled as the competition ior
wages.
PERTINENT ADVICE