The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-08-09
SECTION C..


 dine ago that everyone heard about. IL was called and is known as the Clayton Antitrust Act. Like the Sk erman antitrust act it presumes se regulate combinations in re- stTajnt of trade. Whether it does or not any more than did the Sher- man Antitrust Act is quite beside the question. It is a law and must be accepted accordingly.
 section six which says in plain language That the Labor of a human being is not commodity or article of commerce..
 Gompers and host of laborites have since that time regarded with particular fondness that particular section and when an opportunity arrives of making speech on the subject he is there with both feet.
 Now suppose congress in the course of it's deliberations and in The course of it's legislation were to declare that water was not fluid, iron ore not mineral, oxygen not an element. yellow not a color, Mars not a planet of the solar system is il to be taken for granted that that would make it so?
 Similarly with Labor. To say that labor is not a commodity is to run Coanter to the facts of political eco r11ny and to ask what then is a CaGHEso odity?
 \ commodity is essentially a thing shz1 IS bought and sold. It is bought and sold in open competition: it's value depends upon the amount of sabor power used Tn it's production @0r what it would cost to reproduce yimilar article. It's price is regu- lated by the law of supply and de mand and it may be very cheap or very dear as supply and demand sland in a particular relation one to the other.
 From the point of view of politi- cal economy that is the test of a commodity And beyond peradven- ture labor obeys those tests and proves beyond question that it is such a commodity.
 Labor oscillates in value around it's cost of reproduction. That value is expressed in the price paid for it: it's wages. If laDor is plenti- 1nl labor will often be sold for less shan 1t actually costs to reproduce Il and the national labor producing individuals degenerate. The manu- farlnTer who uses labor as he uses raw material, as he uses his ma chinery. goes into the labor market tor his labor power. He buys it as Cheaply as he can. He tries to keep the price down. But he knows eiha1 given an expensive requirement For the living standard of the work CTS. that is given the cost of repro of that labor power as high, be must pay wages in proportion -Tns only thing that will prevent hlEr buying cheaply is other buyers ID 1he labor market also seeking many workers, and when the supply is inadequate wages Following the law of supply and demand as for all being the price of laber) rise accordingly. When there are insufficient workers, wages rise above the actual costs of production snf jbat labor power, when supply and demand are equal labor will be paid approximately its value in terms of the costs of reproduction, while if labor is in excess of the demand, la boT will be paid below it's value, khat it is Ices than the cost of its reproduction.
 'J'hus acting precisely as any other commodity.
 Why is labor cheap in China and expensive relatively in Australia? ,Sxa because of any legislation, but S6aause of the fact that China Literally teens with available labor ers. while in Australia it is relative " scarce. Why is a high grade mechanic paid more than the shovel stjE9 Because the high grade me .chanio ist relatively rare, because be has coss whole lot to educate