The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-12-12
Mining and Engineering JournaD

Mining ana Engiheerlns Journal)
LET us not delude ourselves. Nei
Their the prices for commodities no
,,s wages for labor are going to re
n,ain at the present heights. Som
neople talk about maintenance o
commodity prices. Other people sa.
,ha, labor will never consent to a re
auction of present wages, which
therefore must remain where they are
Nobody with common sense expect.
ANYTHING of this sort. 1t ought no
~ be- and will not be. This Is not t.
cav that the future relations between
canital and labor in the division O
wealth will not be fairer, and othel
relations also, than they used to be
But wages are going to be determined
nv economic law. and the policies o.
Gompers and Frankfurter and thu
edcts of governmental bureaus are
going to have nothing to do with it
The laborer is going to get what he
earns, and ought to, but no more
During the war he has often got more
for he had to be appeased lest he
should strike and delay essential pro-
duetion. The taxpayers footed the
bin as a part Of the war expense. The
exigencies disappeared on November
H. and therein developed the first fun
damental change in conditions.
Two things then happened immedi
ately: % Overtime and Sunday work
at fancy extra rates of pay were dis
continued. (2) From our own metal
lurgical industry, where work is reg
ularly organized on a 24-hour basis
we get reports that the men exhibited
a new attitude on November II. Those
who had demanded increases on top
of increases, and under the leadership
of q few trouble makers had been in
satiable, suddenly became quiet. Be-
ing no fools, they appreciated that a
lob was worth lot more on Novem-
Der II than it had been on November
10. BY the same reasoning we expect
that the next development will be for
more work to be done per man, which
in itself will ease the labor situation
The increase in labor supply by de-
mobilization of the troops will come
later, and perhaps its climax will be
delayed for a long time, even until
such time as when more men will be
keenly needed, the preliminary read
iustment having been accomplished.
Indeed, the first stage of readjust-
ment is the critical one. The imme-
date question is what is to be done
with the makers of ammunition. Here,
for example, is a factory in which 1000
persons were employed in pre-war
times and in which 10000 are now
occupied in making cartridges. They
ought not to he summarily turned
adrift Yet it would be preposterous-
ly wasteful to keep them making car
tridges. They have got to be return
ed to the textile mills, boot and shoe
factories, machine shops and domes
tic service, whence they came, but
Washington has arranged no plan for
that. The industries themselves have
not been free to make plans, save in
some cases. In many cases they have
got to await the readjustments by
consumers, so that the latter can and
will place orders again. In the pres
ent juncture, specific plans for useful
work to be done at once would be
worth far more than all the doctrines
and essays of Felix Franhfurter, Rob
ert Bruere and the rest of the doctors.
THE talk about not letting wages
come down until the cost of living has
come down is delusive. Like the dog
chasing his own tail, it does not get
anywhere. The peaceful demand for
many ordinary commodities will not
revive until their cost has come down
and the latter will not happen until
labor cost has diminished, either by
lower wages or increased inefficiency.
The representations that the high cost
OF living will prevent are pure pun
combe. There is scarcely any gener~
alization that is more perfectly estab-
lshed by repeated Investigations IN
rmany parts of the country than that
the cost of living increased about 10
times that of the middle of 1914. me
wages for common labor have IN
creased at least twofold (refer to the
specific figures Of the steel industry,
for example). OF course, there are
groups of workers who have benefited