Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-04-15
Wages Going Up and More Work.

wages Going Up and More Work.
A paragraph current in newspapers
is as follows:
"A peculiar feature of the labor ques-
tion in Japan is that with the introduce
ton of labor-saving machinery great
advances have been made in wages
Why this phase of the industrial de-
veOpment of Japan should be pc
culiar" does not clearly appear 1t is
indisputable that several things, at
first sight resembling contraries, have
for decades gone hand in hand in this
and other countries. Among them are
these: Installation of labor-saving ma
chinery has been taking place at an
ever-increasing rate; hours of labor
have been shortened; daily earnings of
laborers have been increased prices of
necessaries of life in particular and of
commodities of all kinds in general
have fallen. 1t should not be consid-
cred peculiar" that the lines along
which the affairs of men are worked
out should be the same in Japan that
they are in America, Britain or Rus
STA. 1t would indeed not only be pc
culiar but startling if they were differ
ent OF course, 1t is too clear to need
argument that many men are temper
arily injured by the introduction of
labor-saving machinery; others are
probably permanently reduced to
lower plane. But against this there is
the substantial and enduring better
ment of the condition of the many. And
while it would seem desirable that
progress could be maintained without
inficting hardships upon any, it is a
great truth that it is impossible to
point to any decided advance ever made
in the material, intellectual, or spir-
itual affairs of man that has not been
paid for if the expression is permits
ible, by the infection of an apparently
or really unmerited hardship upon
some one or more persons. Industrial
affairs of men, like their other rela-
tions, are complex. 1t is generally diff
ficult to ascertain with exactness what
combination of causes is responsible
for given result. But in trying to
solve the apparent paradox why ma
chimes that supplant labor should al
ways be accompanied, in the long run,
by a curtailment of working hours and
an increase in price paid for a days
work, it is we'll to remember that the
number of the wants of men is ilimit-
able, and that hence it can never be
truthfully affirmed that the capacity to
satisfy human wants in general ex-
ceeds or possibly can exceed the de-
mand created by them. There Is, in
deed, production or possibility of
production in certain lines. Thus,
the mines of this country, if operated
regularly and to their full capacity,
would yield more coal than appears to
be in demand. But that simply means
that too many men are engaged in the
task of supplying one human want
the need for given kind of fuel. The
same is true of every other industry
where actual or potential over-produc-
ton exists. But count all these in
dustries, and their number is not very
great; certainly it is definite number.
And against this put the fact that the
wants of man are not simply those
supplied by these industries, or indus
tries dependent upon them, but are H. |
limitable-increase Indefinitely with
civilization, and often keep men guess
ing how to devise the means to supply
them. This general consideration,
which is true wherever mankind has
been found to exist, sheds some light
on the inquiry as to how it happens
that the displacement of labor by ma
chinery ultimately benefits labor.