The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-10
LABOR UNREST.

A good deal of trouble is being
caused by labor unrest in industries
upon which the government depends
for effective support of its plans re-
lating to the prosecution of its part
in the great war. There are strikes or
threats of strike for higher wages in
shipyards, munition works and manu-
featuring industries for army and
navy supplies, and there are official
and unofficial bodies seeking a way
of escape from these troubles. Apart
from the government department of
labor there is a labor committee of
the council of national defense, of
which Samuel Gompers, head of the
American Federation of Labor, is
chairman, and a national industrial
conference board, made up Of repre-
sentatives of employers. There are
various associations seeking to coop
crate in stabilizing conditions and
bringing about agreements between
workmen. employers and the govern
ment for fixing and maintaining wages
in the various industries concerned.
and preventing the kind of competi-
ton that causes shifting from one
place or one employment to another
This is a very difficult undertaking
where there is so much freedom of in
dividual action as people are accus-
toned to in this country, when the de-
mand for labor of various kinds ex-
ceeds the supply. Workmen are far
more numerous than employers and
there is much less official control over
them, either exercised or attempted;
and however organized or associated
it seems to be virtually impossible to
get them and employers and govern
ment officials to work together in a
common cause. Much of the diff
Guilty is due to inevitable differences
in profits and prices in different occu-
pations The government demand for
many things in proportion to existing
means Of supply, causes an increase
in prices, an extension of means of
production and an advance in profits.
The government seeks to counterfeit
this in a measure by taSing profits
and fixing prices, without wholly dis
couraging the stimulating increase of
profits. Naturally workmen seek to
get their share by an increase in
wages, and unless it is readily granted
they try to force it by striking or
threatening to strike.
Conditions inevitably vary in diff
ferent industries. says the New York
Journal of Commerce, and they can
not be made uniform by taxation, by
PROHIBITING, price-fixing or wage
fixing. In normal times some kind of
balance would be gradually effected
by the shifting of capital and of labor
from one employment to another ac-
cording to the reward that could be
obtained by the change. The disturb
ance would not be serious while the
adjustment between demand and sup
ply was going on: but in such a time
as this changes are not gradual and
adjustments cannot be suddenly
made. 1t is desirable to have the in
dustries go on without Interruption or
disturbance, and with theNutmost pro-
duction of results. But economic
laws cannot be absolutely suspended
or human nature with its selfish in
stincts completely controlled. Abso-
lutely fixing wages. prices and profits
by official authority or universal
agreement to a general satisfaction, is
simply impossible. AS well try TO sus-
pend the-Iaw of gravitation