The record-union., 1898-11-18
The GOSPEL OF WAGES.
JUNGLE SANS. LAST FIGURES
ARE A SERMON.
Why Common Laborers and Mere
'Hands" Will Fare Badly Be-
fore Many Years.

The Record Union has recently
published a series of articles on the
question of wages in the United States
and foreign countries. All these tables
have shown a marked reduction Oh
prices in about 80 per cent of the artl-
cles that are consumed by the masses
articles that might be called the neces-
saries of life. 1t has been shown that
the cost of manufactured fabrics tcrea-
ture comforts) has been steadily cheap
ened, though the wages of operatives
have increased. Food products have also
become lower in cost. Simultaneously
with the marked reduction IN cost ol
things that men consume. there mas
been a steady advance in the wages
of skilled workmen.
A study of these tables is valuable
for persons engaged in the business Oh
selecting vocations, either for tneTn-
selves or others; for a careful analysis
of the tables will show that there are
elements at work that tend to the
lowering of the wages of unskllleo
labor Why for example, is it that the
prices of products have been lowered IN
face of increased wages of the opera
tives who make the products in ques-
tion? 1t does not require much OF
search to arrive at the fact that the
operatives whose wages have been in
creased owe that increase to the fact
that their skill is in demand. Edu-
Gated labor that is paid relatively high
wages, when expressed in dollars and
cents, is really the cheapest labor (the
most work for the least money! to the
owners of the machines in use.
In this connection it is interesting to
note the fact that all investigators of
any standing have come to the conclu-
sion that the man who has nothing to
offer to his fellow men but his rude,
uneducated hand labor must ever work
at continually increasing disadvan-
tage Wealth is no longer obtained as
IN the tabled days when all that was
necessary to obtain the necessaries of
life was the will to work with ones
hands The days of the rolling hitch
and the down hill pUll' are over-if, in
deed, they ever existed.
The conclusion to be drawn from
these tables, a full synopsis of which
has already appeared, is that the wages
of mere hands" or common laborers
must ever tend downward to the lowest
liNIlS price, II, IuuGSOy IldIHlnS1S bOCS
not finally drive a large percentage OF
such employment out of the field.
DIR. William T. Harris, Edward At
kinson, Giffen, Mulhall and other statis-
ticians and economists, educators and
statesmen, have shown that there is an
increasing demand for men who can
operate intricate machinery with skill,
and for men who can do things that
machinery cannot do. The future race
wants more inventors, more men who
study the mysteries of life and death,
and improve upon the known methods
of treating disease. There is a demand
for more and better astronomers; for
microscopists and psychologists in the
science of medicine; for chemists and
mechanics in the arts of production; for
engineers, mathematicians, and men of
ideas in commerce. In almost every
department of human effort there is
great growth. The developments of the
last fifty years have revolutioniZed the
old ways Of doing things. The man of
the future must be able to confront the
new conditions and to solve the prob
lens of the new times by better edu-
cational and vocational equipment than
that possessed by his ancestors.
All these conclusions point to a so
luton of the labor problem, in part at
least, by wider and more perfect edu-
cation. All that is required by the gos-
pei Of emancipation which is calling
men away from the thralldom of mere
manual toll, is that the serfs be edu-
Gated in a general way as men, then In
a special or technical way as work
men.
1t is shown by a study of the census
of Massachusetts, which is a fair test
of the conditions in other States, that
out of a thousand workmen engaged in
the manufacturing arts designated in
the census, something like two hundred
are daily doing work in the line of es-
thetics-adding something Of ornament
70 that which was primarily only use
full In other words, the world is no
longer satisfied with the plain oak
chair, the rude forms of desk and table,
vase and plate, handed down from our
ancestors Look at any modern house
or office as an example Of the diversity
of human labor in the mechanic arts
From the paper on the wall to the
shades on the lamps, from the mark
ings of the plates to the shape and
colorings of the chairs, and all through
every department of household goods
one will see delicate shades and forms
of beauty, combined by the genius of
invention and the ingenuity of cunning
artisans. All these things call for
technical skill, for dapper hands and
thinking brains.
In the office it is telephones and type
writers, electric lights and patent let
ter files. and on every side a hundred
articles that called for the work of
trained hands and marvellous machines.
The result of all this has been that
more men and women are hired to-day
than ever before in thousands of voca-
tions unknown to our ancestors. Fig
ures are repulsive to most people, but
the census shows that, though the pop
ulation has not increased over ~ per
cent. since 1850, there are 1S5 per cent.
more people hired in the mechanical
and manufacturing arts, and that there