Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-03-12
THE ECoNOMx OF HIGH WAGES.


No one understands better than the
! average shrewd trust magnate the
economy of high wages. When these
combines advance wages it is purely a
matter of business. Such sentiment as
generosity or regard for the rights OF
labor, or a desire to share profits with
labor, cuts no figure with the trust,
| which is the most unsentimental thing
in the world and proverbially heart
less.
When trusts advance wages there is
a hard, sound economic reason for it.
Just as the wise engineer cares for his
engine and treats it with forethought
and care with a view of getting the
most and the best service out of it, so
does the trust manager care for the
great human engine, labor, in his
charge, keeping it in proper working
order and in good condition. And it
is no more a matter OF sentiment in
the II case than in the other. The
stockholders demand their dividends
regularly and as high a rate as possible.
1t is the trust managers business to
see that the profits are forthcoming,
that the most is gotten out Of every de-
tail of the establishment, and that
nothing is wanted at any point. Every
manufacturer knows that to get the
best results labor must be well treated
and justly dealt with; moreover, the
best labor must be employed, and the
best labor commands the best wages,
because it is the most economic at the
price. The extensive employer of labor
who has not yet learned these things
has yet to master an important branch
of his business.
Many if not most of the advances
made in wages all along the industrial
line of late have not been the outcome
OF a fear on the part Of employers lest
a strike come at their busiest and most
prosperous time, for in most instances
the advances have been voluntary and
frequently unexpected. The great and
steady boom has created so large a
demand for labor, especially the best
skilled labor, in all branches of trade
that wages were bound to rise, and
when the advance began it had to con-
tinue all along the line. Moreover, in
telligent employers, as stated, know
that high wages are not only quite
compatible with, but, indeed, are a nee
essary adjunct to, cheap production and
consequently large profits.
High wages are and always have
been the secret of American success
and cheap production in the industrial
field. Instead of high wages being a
result of conditions in America, those
conditions are the direct result of well
paid and intelligent labor assisted, of
course, by an abundance Of cheap raw
material. These go to make a combi-
nation that is invincible in the markets
of the world, and against which the
pauper labor of Europe is powerless to
compete even on its own ground, as u
wonderful and growing export trade
to every part of the world proves.
Meanwhile. American captains of in
dustry deserve applause for their level
~headedness and shrewd business sense
in looking carefully after the welfare of
their labor. Although it goes without
saying they have their own interests
at heart in this matter, and while there
may in the not very distant future
come a time of collapse, contraction and
retrenchment, when the speculative
bubble in connection with the present
boom shall have burst, when labor will
be first to suffer as it is usually last to
feel the good effects of industrial pros
perity. nevertheless the present gen.
eral upward movement in wages II
the apparent general effort toward the
betterment of labor is a long step for
ward in modern social progress.