The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-09

to take and no place to get it so as to
increase wages or profits, because the mar
ket IL always filled with products II cannot
digest When profits get below the aver
age in the market the manufacturer must
Of bis WAGES or sqaer loss t or part
ma is only putting off the day when failure
surely follows. for profits, in every panic,
can live. AS rates of wages and profits
Keep company down to lower and lower
levels the life line gets shorter and shorter,
they are to earn and the greater the danger
or failure. There is no hope for a general
increase in wages without very consider
able increase In rates OF profit. A rise in
wages OF two or more times the present
rate Will come by removal Of competi
ton. Let us take the wages of BARRIERS for
an example This class of labor is in
steady demand, the wages are not fuctuat-
lng and the rate is above the average. A
barber IS usually paid IS cents out of every
dollar ne takes in; the other 80 cents pays
the employer, pays capital and rent. There
are at least two shops for every one So
ciety needs, and BARRIERS are idle at least
half their time. Let us suppose some for
tunate opening attracts half these
BARRIERS away and new men are
their places; the work now concentrates.
business is brisk and the wages double; the
rent of the shop and its capital and dead
expense is saved, increasing the employers
prohts at least four-fold. The employel
mas he is now in a better position relative
10 his workman than before, and in order
adopted which would probably increase the
percentage from 60 to 50, thus causing an
increase In wages of two and a half times
Mthout any additional cost to the public
The reader will doubtless think this plan
would succeed if some new world was dis
covered where gold existed without end, for
IT would take some mighty attraction to
pun competing laborerS out of the field
Ihere is such world, however. wnere
wages are higher than in the most prolific
neIds OF gold, and 1t is only waiting to be
staked and claimed
1t is common remark among the people
mat times would always be good If the
people lad plenty of money. They mean
by this that valuable money is always in
strong demand among the people. In order
TO make labor as salabe as money we have
put to make the profits to be derived from
laoor products equal to the profits to be
derived from money. 1t is frequently said
mat hard times are caused by overproduc-
tloh, put no one means by this that there
IS an overproduction of money during haro
umes. In this day We are all engaged in
producing the things we do not want ana
sell them for their value in money in order
to get the things of equal value which We
do want. 1t is a most important fact that
no country ever produced a supply of value
greater than the demand; in fact, no coun-
try ever produced a supply of value equal
to the demand when the value of money is
taken into account.
TAKES A WRONG DIRECTION.
The value of money is free to take any
direction and the demand for it is always
equal to the strongest demand in the
market. The trouble is not that the de-
mand that will make labor as good as gold
does not exist. but that this demand takes
some contrary direction and leaves labor
stranded. Since all values of whatever kind
are eXchangeable in money there is always
an Unsuitable demand for good money. This
same unlimited market may be had for
labor and the demand for labor products
may become but a reflection of the demand
for money. The trouble now with labor
and its produce is that some other property
is much more powerful and can steal de-
mand away and hold it, and sell it to the
highest bidder Value in action is value in
demand; without demand there is no ac-
ton, and labor is idle or must go to work
for less by competing with others. When
the demand Tor capital has been enticed to
some secure place capital is without sup
port, and 1t will perish unless it gets it
back and it bids for 1t and completes. This
competing labor and capital is always of
a kind for which there IS no available de-
mand at the price, and wages and profits
must come down to recover demand. and
then this powerful foe gathers in the fruits
OF victory by capitalizng the lost value.
1t is necessary to remind the reader once
again that value is a force and obeys physi-
cal law. When pressure is brought to bear
on values of one kind. pressure has been
released from values of another kind, and
the loss TO one Is the gain of another. The
by competition Is capitalized into property
in land and other strong properties by
monopoly. The reason property In land can
steal demand away from everything else
on equal terms arises from the nature of
such property. We cannot live without it,
and the more favorably it is situated the
worse we need It, Property in land will
capitalize value at lower rates of profits
than any other form of property, and it is
preferred at the average rate before every
thing else. This property begins to draw
rent, which is capitalized into value,
and the increase in the volume
Of rent on one side and the
decline in the average rate of profit on the
other cuts into other property like two
edged sword 1t is the element of excessive
zt 1patb1ika fixifU of land values
that compels other values to fall before 1t
will release demand so they may move
approach the uniform profit Of this univer-
sal property, all industry and development
declines with them and every enterprise is
Strangled The diffusion of wealth among
the people depends upon the variety of
rates of profit in every calling they should
correspond to the social Importance and the
risk involved in each trade, but where COM
petition begins it's work this variety in
rates begins to change toward uniformity,
and the uniform rates begin to travel down
the scale. The flood of unearned value in
creases with every decline of profits, and
each inequality becomes the PROLIFIC mother
of greater and still greater Inequality.
HOW WAGES ARE RED UCED.
The wages of labor are reduced in two
ways: The first is by division of the
wages the worker should get among two
or three who compete with him; the second
is by an unnatural low price of his produce
to enable it to sell in the restricted low
wage market. One laborer and his family
need about the same quantity of necessary
produce one millionaire, and as a con-
sequence the farmer finds the price of his
produce going down in order TO meet this
demand and there is no nelp for him eX-
cept higher wages among common laborers.
There will be no relief but the relief from
competition and the substitution of relation
to take it's place. The dependence of wages
upon profits arises from the factory sys-
tenn, from the new and Intricate pIoct SSes
that now prevail. Many labo1'ers CT differ
ent kinds now combine to produce a yard
of cloth. Instead of the single farmer and
Of cloth begins its existence on the farm
perhaps thousands of miles away, and re-
quireS steamships and railroads and Cittes
and towns besides the plant cor Its Droduc-
ton. 1t ought to be easily understood that
the law which regulates the value of this
ands of agencies where before It dealt with
but a few, must be law of compound de-
velopment, and that competition has been
superseded. The number of yards of cloth
for each laborer has been greatly increased,
so that the labor cost for each yard has
become small item; so also has the profit
Consider now that, at the prevailing rate
Of profit, all the dead expense Is
provided for and that any Increase in
the value of produce viii be almost
1t will be apparent to the reader that a
general Increase in wages must follow a
general increase in profits, and an increase
in profits along a few lines would only
draw idle capital TO them and force them
back again. The necessity for this advance
arises from the flood of useless capital ana
the army of half-employed labor that must
in some way, be provided for. An increase
in the general rate OF profits all along the