New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-31

urally one thinks of reducing the
number of people, which would per
haps be easier than to increase the
number of jobs. DR.. Gorgas con-
siders the easier course in the way
of rejecting it:
will not consider the question
of decreasing the number of people
applying for employment. No
churchman or broad Sanitarian
would consider for a moment such
measures, though they would be
very easily brought about. Amy
sanitarian could spread such an
epidemic of yellow fever in the
United States that million peo-
pie could easily be killed off in the
course of year. Such a sanitary
measure would greatly improve the
condition of those who were left.
Wages for several years would be
higher, and living conditions, there
fore, among the poorest very much
better. Europe is now trying this
measure on a very large scale.
When this war is over there will
be many millions fewer persons in
Europe competing for jobs than
there were when it commenced,
and there will be very many million
dollars of wealth destroyed which
will have to be replaced. This will
mean that in Europe, for several
years to come, the jobs will be
seeking the men, rather than the
men the jobs. Wages will steadily
increase, and the poverty Of the
poorest classes will be alleviated
Prosperity, l dare predict, will be
very general.
1t is a dangerous and thrilling
thought. DR.. Gorgas ought to be
careful. Some fanatic might be
minded to improve the lot of pos
terity, for at least one generation
by spreading the germs of terrible
plague. Who should condemn hin
ultimately? Though he were hanged
in the present, he might be memori-
allied in the future by prosperous
generation. On this line of reason.
ing infantile paralysis is, of course
an economic blessing for the future
But this is too CHASTITY. DR.. Gorga:
considers the other course. A way
must be found to make more jobs
He first denounceS the present
system:
Under our present system, the
laborers being more numerous than
the Jobs, the tendency is inevitable
for wages gradually to decrease un-
til they reach and pass below the
starvation point. And in such a
civilization as ours the poorest
class of laborers is constantly
starving and disappearing from
want and the other concomitants
of extreme poverty.
This is said in the face of the fact
that wages, whether you take then
in money or in their power over
goods, have been rising for severa
generations, or, in fact, since there
began to be statistics, which is tC
say, roughly, since the beginning
of the mechanical era, which null
tiplied the productivity of tht
individual many times, extending
his arms, his legs, his eyes anC
his voice. The tendency for wage.
to go below the starvation point i.
not discernible to the naked under
standing. But there remains still
the problem of how to increase the
number of jobs. The great SAM
tartan here begins TO be a bit hazy
He suggests a form of single tau
which would force a lot of unused
areas into cultivation and restore
the man to the land. Beyond that
the thing to do everywhere is &c
raise wages. He concludes:
| appeal to you from the point
Of view of Christians TO take part
i'm all measures that tend toward
increase Of wages. with the object
of putting our fellow man in such
position that he will be able to
adopt the teachings and morals of
Christianity. | urge upon you the
consideration Of the question as 70
whether or not the greatest and
most efficient of all these measures
is not such taxation of land values
as will force into use all unused
lands.
DR.. Gorgas is under the tyranny
of a phrase. That condition OF
wages in which the laborer gets all
he produces is known, he says, as
natural wages" He thinks all OF
US would get natural wages if the
monster of monopoly had not some