The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-03-10
WAGES OF LABOR.
Basis on Which All Business Is
Conducted.
FOUNDATION OF ALL WEALTH

Earnings of Toll Support Entire
Structure of Commerce and Industry
Low Wages Lessen incomes o.
Manufacturer and Merchant.
Many manufacturers and merchants
utterly fail 10 understand the intimate
relation of wages to business. mean
ing both the volume of business and
the grade of goods manufactured
They look upon the millions Of popu
Iation as an abstract thing which
should mean large volume Of bust
ness. but overlook the fact thai il t.
not the barefootcd man that creates y
demand for Il pair of shoes. but it is
the man needing shoes who is the hap
by poSSeSSor of money with which to
purchase them
our merchants and manufacturers
seem to understand that serious crop
shortage in the agricultural districts
forewarns them of lessened trade in
those districts, but they do not seem
to comprehend that wage shortage
in the Industrial centers will as surely
diminish the volume of trade in those
centers
Every merchant and manufacturer
Is dependent upon the purchases of the
masses of the people and not upon The
purchases of the classes whose mum
Der is very limited and whose pur-
chases are largely made abroad.
For illustration if the shoe business
of this country were confined to sup
plying the wants of coupon cutters
about % per cent of shoe manufacture
ers and shoe retailers would have to
go out of business.
1t is said of one New York million
aire that he pays $50 to $50 a pair for
his shoes-custom made-and that as
soon as the new custom shop finish
wears off so they need to be polished
he throws them away and dons a new
pair This man of wealth is quite eX-
travagant in shoes, but there are not
enough like him to run q modern shoe
factory three months in the year. and
moreover, he himself, with all his
wealth, is dependent on the masses of
the people for their maintenance of the
his various properties and yields him
his vast income
Vast fortunes are engaged in bust.
ness enterprises or are invested In real
estate or railroads. In either case in
come depends not on the commerce of
the rich, but upon the purchases of
the masses-in a large sense the wages
of labor
These wages support the families
that support the merchants. The mer.
chants and families support the land
lords who own the high renting retail
stores and tenements.
They also support the schools, street
railroads and other merchants.
They also support the manufacturers
and their employees in other cities and
all merchants and landlords dependent
on them.
And these families and their wages
and their merchants and their manu-
facturers in transporting goods or per
sons from one city to another consti-
tute the business of the railroads.
Wage earners spend nearly all they
receive. If they receive more they
spend more. If they receive less they
are obliged to spend less.
Every time wages are raised 10 per
cent there is 10 per cent added to their
gross purchases.
When wages are reduced the volume
Of business is reduced just that much.
When a merchant favors reducing
the wages of labor in his own city he
is voting to diminish his own business
and is approaching that much nearer
bankruptcy.
Since labor unions fight to preserve
and advance wages they operate to
maintain or enlarge the volume of
trade, and at the same time they are
protecting their members from starva-
ton wages they are protecting the
merchants from bankruptcy through
starvation business.
Some misguided small bore capital
lists say that we need an influx OF
cheap Asiatic labor
Let us grant their contention fgura-
lively and what would be the resultf
We will assume that all our labor
is performed by Chinese,
Then all our commerce would con-
sist of supplying the Chinese with
their oriental food and clothing, and
even these would be supplied by Chi
nese merchants, as is the case now on
the Pacific coast.
Our merchants would vanish, and
our city real estate values would
shrink 20 per cent or more.
Every railroad would go into a re-
ownership, and all our manufacture
ing enterprises would perish
Every one of the great fortunes that
flaunt their wealth and insult our in
telligence would crumble.
Our rich men are either very igno-
rant or else they think we are.
They ought to know that we know
that the thing that supports the whole
structure Of manufacturing, merchan-
dising, real estate values and railroads
" the standard of wages, to maintain
which the unions are pledged to the
last man and the last dollar.
Our exploiters are not smart enough
to get much fat off the commerce of
a Chinaman. They want to exploit o
man who earns more and so is more