The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-03-25

G. w. Perkins, president Of the
Cigarmakers' International union re-
flutes the favorite anti-union argu-
ments that trade unionism is based
on the principles of monopoly and
that it is useless for unions to raise
wages, as these gains are overcome
by Increased living costs.
Professor Laughlin of the economic
department of the University of Chi
cago is the latest to expound these
fallacies, and he is answered as fol-
lows by President Perkins in the cur
cial Journal:
1.-THE professor robed in the aca-
demic insignia, with diploma daz-
cling before his eyes, assumes some-
times an authority on economic ques-
lions based on surface Indications
His conclusions are as rule unre-
liable, biased and unworthy Of cred
ence. In surveying the activities of
trades unions in relation to wages
and the cost of living, Prof. J. Laur-
ence Laughlin in an article on the
Monopoly of Labor published in one
of the magazines some time ago, dis
played a degree of ignorance which is
somewhat perplexing to the man
without diploma.
LAS a matter of cold fact" asks
Prof. Laughlin, chow has the work.
ingman Jared with this method of
raising wages in recent years? In the
principal manufacturing and me-
chanical Industries, leaving out SAL
aried employees, in the ten years from
7$Q7.10n7 b
number Of the Bureau of Labor)
wages had risen from 99.2 to 1924,
or 2S per cent, while retail prices for
food had increased from 963 to
1905, or 25.5 per cent. That is the
purchasing power Of wages fell 90
per cent during that period of un-
usual expansion of business. In short,
the whole effect of the wage increase
had been nullified by the rise in the
prices of food usually consumed in
the family budget"
1T is more than a presumption,
which leads to the assertion of the
futility Of the trades union move
ment, to overcome the increase in the
cost Of living by higher wages and
shorter hours. The statistics pub
lished by the federal government
make no distinction between the
earnings of union labor and non
union labor. The earnings of women
and children are also included in the
total. Hence to draw a hard and fast
line In reference to the increase in
wages, as compared with the cost of
living, which includes the organized
and unorganized, has no practical
value whatsoever. 1t is based on a
line of reasoning devoid of common
sense. intelligent comparison and
analysis.
1.-THE trades union movement is no,
responsible for the low wages paid
to non-union labor; it is not due to
its activities that the wages paid tc
this class of labor does not advance
with the increase in the cost of liv.
ing. It has always contended that the
tendency in the average wage rate
compared with the cost of living, due
to lack of organization, is down
ward; gradually leading to state OF
sem1-pauperlsm and degradation
But, it has also commended that by or.
ganization on trades union lines, this
tendency would be eliminated. Tha,
it has not fully succeeded, is not. due
to the principles underlying thu
trades union movement; on the con
trary it is due to a lack of organiza
ton on more extensive scale. A
correct analysis of the value Of the
trades union movement in this par.
tlcular direction can be obtained o1l1
by preparing a. statistics of trades
union wages as compared with the