Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-08-29
BY CHARLES D. HILLES,
Chairman of the Republican National
Committee


Committee.
NEW YORK. Aug. 29.-Have you
ever stopped to think where the mini
mum wage" proposition of the Third
Term party leads to? Do you know
what it means and where it will end?
The Third Term platform asserts that
minimum wage commissions should be
standard which the public ought to
sanction as a minimum" To the wage
Garner who is underpaid that sounds
peculiarly attractive So does the
promise of health to the sick man. But
it is an old adage that all is not gold
that gitters" and this applies as often
to economic remedies as to patent med
icines. The proposition in its simplest
terms is that the government should fix
rate Of wages less than which no
employer would be permitted to pay.
Governments are controlled by political
parties So that it also means that
political party would fix the lowest
wage which any employer could pay.
Nov, what would that lowest wage
be? That, of course, would have to de-
pend on the political party The Re
publican party. if it continued to hold
its national convention first. would fix
the minimum wage for an eight hour
day of an able bodied man. for instance,
at So. Then the Democratic party would
vious that to hold its own it must make
the rate equally high. But the Demo
cratic party, like other parties. is al
ways anxious to do more in its plat
form than hold it's own. 1t wants to
win supporters from the other parties
TO do this it would naturally fix the
minimum wage for which it stood at
$3.50 a day Then would come an in
dependent party and it would raise Che
minimum to "a a day, for unskillcd
! labor other "minimums" in proportion
| Then would come the Socialist party,
| determined to make the strongest bid
tor the support of labor Its minimum
would probably be IS, and the labor
party determined not to be outdone
would make it Sc
Would Labor Get tn"
OF course, that would be all well and
proper so far as the rate of wages was
| concerned, and no one would object to
labor receiving such reward, but would
! it receive it? OF course if unskilled
labor cost ST for an eight-hour day
skilled labor would have to be paid in
| proportion if men were to continue to
take the trouble to become skilled la
borers. The skillfuI brckmason who
now receives three times the rate paid
to the unskilled laborer would demand
that his wage be three times greater,
on SIS day. Even suppose, for sake
of argument. that these rates Of wages
were fixed at one election, where would
| it end? At the next election each po-
! litical party would seek to outbid the
other until the minimum" would be-
come a maximum little dreamed of to-
day
As ] have said. no friend of labor
could object to its generous compensa-
lion, but would labor receive the wages
promised by the party platform
Would not the effect be so as to in
crease the cost of building, of manu-
featuring, of production Of every sort,
that no one could afford to buy the
products. so that building and manu-
featuring would cease? For if such
rates of wages could be established for
the worker in the factory, in construc-
ton work and in building, is it possible
that any labor could be induced to work
on the farm? Even now, when wages
in the city are good labor on the farm
is so scarce that crops go to waste and
the farmers are constantly complaining
and the complaint of the present high
cost of living is universal
But suppose the employer were for