The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-03

tion has been felt in every direction. It now extends to private and corporate concerns which desire to run their es- tablishments with as little friction and as little loss possible The common and the statutory laws which make em- ployers liable in some degree and under certain circumstances for the careless ness of their employees are a most power ful incentive to the employment of men with clear heads Thus economically again the movement acquires strength.
 The signs of the times relative to wages are those which can be drawn from economic conditions. as a rule. Wages are higher at the present time than at any previous period in the his- tory of the country. This applies not only to this but to other lands. Of course high wages in some degree mean high prices, but in all probability wages have kept ahead of prices, so that the real purchasing power, which constitutes real wages themselves, is also higher than at any other period in the history of the country.
 Pensions for Workmen.
 Another sign relative to labor, and which means a better understanding and a more interested body of employers and employees, Is the tendency to establish PcuSioh DTOdu IllIlutu anu great hearted employers are seeing that the man who invests his labor with them should have some protection against what we know as economic insecurity.
 The industrious workingman who puts his conscience as well as his skill of brain and hand into his labor, is really working in the interest of the public, and when he becomes disabled through accident whether by his own careless 1.~ l,.r Al..+ IL g-ft- through defects the responsibility for which belong to the employer, he has sacrificed something in the interest of the public. So pension funds to recoup him for his losses or for inability further to earn support for himself and fam fly are being established. These are very old across the Atlantic, and there are some instances of years of experience in this country, but 1t is only within the last few years that general interest has been enlisted. Now some of the largest concerns in the country-rairoads, cor porations engaged in manufacturing and others-are providing by a systematic, we'll worked out scheme for the protec- tion of their employees. This will obtain additional advancement in the whole moral tone of industry, and will enable both employer and employe to see more clearly the joint interest involved.
 Prospects Very Hopeful.
 Whether all these things will be brought about during the coming year or not Is, of course, problematical, and it would be unreasonable to expect that they will be, but the prospects for 1904, uncomplicated by an industrial depres- sion, are very hopeful indeed. Should an industrial depression come upon the country there would be a reduction in 10 m hnr n,,d nf Strikes do not prevail to such great extent when industry is laboring under depression as when 1t is prosperous. The high prices which prevail under prosperity are the first to feel the ef- feet of a depression, but wages are the last to fall. The reverse is true when the country is growing out of an indus trial depression-prces begin to rise and wages rise more slowly.
 It is also true, however, that while prices may fall below their range as it existed during a period of industrial de- pression or after a period of prosperity, wages rarely if ever fall to the plane from which they started when prosperi- ty began. The tendency of wages is al- ways upward, taking the decades to- gether; the tendency of prices is always downward under the same conditions. So, whether an industrial depression ItdcHtS us QuTliik tHc ItAt year UT two or not, it is fair to assume that the low wages of thirty or forty years ago will not be reached, no matter what the se- verity of the depression may be. Wages will not fall below what they were five or six years ago, when the present pe- riod of prosperity began, but they will fall, because under a period of depres- sion wages as high as they are now be- come uneconomic-that is to say, they 4 Ar-- SA <~4~ rN1.~ A. - degree that goods cannot be sold. Security for High Wages.
 The workingman sometimes misunder- stands this particular feature of econom- ic conditions. All men will be glad to see wages increase, but if increased to a cer- tai3 point production ceases and wages