The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-08-02
WAGE
 PROBLEM ARISES
Unskilled Laborer Will Not Easily Accept Reduction
 From Present Pav.

It IS natural that some people should wonder how the country will adjust itself economically after the war. The drift toward socialism threatens to revolutionize business and bring about radicahsm in govern ment. The inflated wages occasion ed by the wars demand cannot be continued if business is to flourish and after the war they must be re- duced to reasonable level. It is argued that the unskilled laborer, for example who is now being paid from $S.5O to $4.50 a day, will not be con tent to see these wages cut in two; nor will other classes of labor be sat isfied with reductions which must come.
 Even now there is economic dis turbance due to inflated wages which the Government Is paying in indus tries which it is directing, wages which ordinary industry cannot meet without facing bankruptcy. although industry must make some effort to meet them or be deprived of all em- ployes. What is to come when the war ends, when the Government ceas- es its intuition purchases and it's ship building, and when the labor market approaches normal conditions, with greater demand for jobs than there is demand for men? How are we to solve the problem of displacing com petent women employees for no more competent men and adjust the labor conditions occasioned by the employ ment of women so generally in almost every industry?
 While the civil war was raging peo- pie were discussing questions almost like those which we are talking about today. It was predicted that when the two million fighting men who had been in the armies of the North and South were released from service that a revolution would result, that an- archy would prevail, and European observers even went so far as to pre- dict such disasters for America as in evitable. But the country had no such problems to solve. The bound less West claimed many men who came from the army. A nation re-, lieved of war strain turned eagerly to the arts of peace. Industry thrived and business prospered. So far as political conditions were concerned 1t was soon discovered that the men who had done the fighting would also the governing. They were the men who were elected as legislators, as Governors, Congressmen, and Sena- tors. In council they were the men whose influence was sought and whose advice was followed Having made great sacrifices for the country and the flag, these soldiers, in both the North and the South, were to be trusted to promote good government. The men of the North having saved the nation, were not willing it should be ruined, and they saw to it that 1t was not.
 So it will be again. The flower of American manhood and citizenship is today in France or on it's way there, or will be there before this war is end ed. They will be the men who will direct the affairs of our Government when the war is over, and who should direct 1t. They are earning the right to do this. No one who remains at home while they fight will have much to say about how this nation or its business will be run. The radical 1 Socialist whose contribution to the war has been one Of obstruction; the profiteer who has piled up g. fortune while he shirked his duty as citizen; the unpatriotic labor agitator who has milked the Government for enormous wages while the sons of his neighbor 1 ,5r IN. Government-none of these will have much to say about how America will be governed or it's affairs conducted when this war Is over.
 We can trust these soldiers when they return to take up their duties as citizens, just as we are trusting and relying upon them now. The red flag of socialism will not be raised to a point where 1t will even threaten to momentariiy obscure the Stars and Stripes with several million citizen sol diers on the job. The men who have slept in the mud, with the artillery roaring their lullaby; who have sui fered the torments of thirst and the bangs of hunger: who have toiled not
 eight-hours a day but twenty and twenty-four hours day; who have
 shed their blood and endured the tor.
 ture of wounds, with the fear of deatt constantly in mind and all of this fol
 $50 a month-wilI have little patience
 with the man who complains, wher
 the war is over and the world is safe
 from German miiitarisrn, because new
 conditions may force a reduction o1
 way wages from s50 fo sb0 A wnek
 to normal figures.-Portland Press,