The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-11-06
THE REcORD.UNION AND WAGES

| allied contem porary, the Sacrame nto Rec
| ord Union. has been lately engaged in
the decidedly uphill task of showing
| that the reduction of milroad freight
rates would inevitably force proportion
ate reduction of the wages of railroad
employees, and alphabetically lower
ing OF the compensation of all the wage
earners of the state.
Whether the arbitrary reduction OF
freight tariffs by the railroad commission
be just or expedient. the argument with
which the Record Union opposes it is
certainly untenable. 1t is the same kind
of soph stry that the beneticaries OF pro-
lection and other special privileges have
used from time immemorial to deiude
the working people Of the world into
supporting them in their iniquties. 1t
rests on the absurd assumption that en-
ployers as a rule pay wages in proportion
to profits; that large profits mean high
wages; that if you take care OF the man
who does the ring he will, in the gener-
osity of his SOUL take care of the man
who is hired.
A little clear thinking will demonstrate
to an intelligent MAJ the falsity of this
every day facts will prove its failure in
I practice.
The price of labor is not, and should
not be, dependent on the good will or
liberality of those who buy i. any more
than the price of the products OF labor.
The hiring of labor is no more mat
ter OF philanthropy than the purchase of
hat. Like the latter, it is a matter OF
business. And when an Individual or
corporation hires labor or buys the pro-
ducts of labor, which, in mora remote
sense, is also hiring labor, the price that
is paid is not what the hirer can afford
to pay, or as little as the individual or
corporation would like to pay, but what
the condition of the labor market en-
ables the laborer to ask successfully. The
same eternal and mmutable law of sup
| ply and demand which fixes the price of
hats. caps and boots fixes the price of
labor. This is q proposition that reither
the railorad ana tariff-sustained monopo
lies on the one hand, nor the various
labor organizations on the other, can get
around. 1t is as impregnable as the lay
OF gravitation, because it is as natural.
1t may be true that in isolated cases
employers pay more than the actual mar
ket price for certain kinds of labor. Con
siderations OF friendship, sympathy or
philanthropy often dictate such a course;
| but these cases constitute the exceptions
to the rule, and the wages are always
| proportioned to the level esta bills ned by
/ the invincible and ever operative law of
| supply and demand. II can also be said
] nft far
ployers for less than they could receive
elsewhere. but in every instance it will
be found that there is some other COM
pensatiEg consideration.
! In spite of the tremendous power
welded by labor organizations they can
not, IN broad sense, establish and
m aintain wage scale; they may some
! times delay a reduction or hasten an ad-
vance, but a force greater than all OF
them com bned, the perciless law of sup
| ply and demand, ultimately fixes the
plane upon which all their calculations
are based. When the supply of labor far
| exceeds the demand, wages are going to
decline regardless of any obstruction the
may place in the way, for men must eat
to live, and rather than become corpses
! ller Will UeCOmc anu tuht tHt
lowered wage offered regardless of the
| com hands of unions. And on the con.
trary when the demand presses hard on
! the supply, the wage scale will ascend
unaided by any union or combination.
That wages are not proportiOned to
| profits, as the Reurd- Union and the tariff
barons necessarily insist, is made plainly
evident by the fact that the lowest wages
in the United States are paid in the
states that possess the industries which
have grown richest undsr the nourishing
influence of protection, and that Oh some
of tie most Profitable street car lines in
the larger eastern cities tho employees
work the longest for the least pay.
But an appeal to the specific instances
of the failure Of the theory that big pro-
fits mean big wages is really unnecessary,
for it should be clear to the most SUPER
fetal mind that the ruling princip pie, and
! the logical one, too, is for people TO buy
, where they can buy cheapest and sell
/ where they can sell highest. Tners Is
| but one condition in which the laborer
| be he a mental CIR manual worker, can
hope to MAINTAIN standard of compen-
sation worthy of his toll. he has no right
| TO more and should not ba satisfied with
, less, and that is the condition in which