The Penn's Grove record., 1919-09-05
WAGES AND
Stacking Is Paid For By Consumer

perception and admission that it's
high wages are disappointing so far as
the increased money fails to give ac-
customed satisfaction of wants. The
unions whose spokesman declare that
the race between wages and prices
should be stopped at the present level
are among the most intelligent, and
therefore the strongest, in the coun-
try. They will increase the country's
Indebtedness to them if they will go a
step further and consider how the COW
eted satisfactions can be obtained
without reduction of wages, or with
DEDUCTIONS of wages smaller than the
increased satisfactions of wants, or
V of luxuries and pleasures of life.
All would like to see this, and most
would assist in the process, if there
we're belief in such a possibility.
What is the missing link in the argu-
ment, and what is the answer?
When more is produced there is
more to provide, and wages will buy
more without raising prices. 1t is
true that there has been a great in
crease of production during the war,
and that prices have risen. That is
the exception which goes to prove the
rule that increased production lowers
prices. The reason for the exception
is that the increase of production dur
ing war is limited to goods and SER
vices for which there is a strictly linn
tied demand, and for the purpose of
destruction rather than of satisfaction
of general wants. During war the
production Of universally wanted
Goods decreased in something like a
due proportion to the increase of such
articles as munitions. Even stocks of
general goods are depleted by the di-
version of productive effort in other
directions. The reluctant decrease Of
supply in proportion to demand is the
cher cause OF the high cost of living.
When productive effort is restored to
peaceful proportion the result will be
increase of supply, and the cost Of
living will fall, if the advice of the
railway men is taken and the increase
of nominal wages is stopped.
1t is easy to supply examples I'M
der the theory. The British Board of
Trade says that for the first twenty
weeks of this year the production of
coal was 240, 900, 900 tons, compared
with 287, 900, 900 in the last pre-war
year. In both years the number of
miners was the same. How is it that
in normal times, with lower demand
for coal and lower wages, there was a
greater production than now, when
the demand is urgent and wages the
highest ever known? There I sew
eral explanations, which, it is agree
able to say, apply to our workers !
less degree, and to some OF u work
ers not at all. One is that the British
Golfers are strangling their industry
according to their custom by declining
to produce according to their easy
capacity. They are, even threatening
their country by refusing to produce
at all, in order to force compliance
with their political demands. Although
better paid than ever before, they not
only refuse to produce coal on a scale
of a quarter billion dollars worth a
year, but by the lack of their product
they check the distribution of goods
over railways or seas, while them
selves obtaining their supplies from
the mines direct, by trade usage. The
consequence is such an accumulation
of demand over supply that the price
has exceeded the Government limit,
and the Government has had to an
nounce an increase of price to con-
sumers because of increased wages"
shorter hours for the miner, and de
creased production per workman"
Happily, there is no such shocking
Indictment of our miners. They are
agitating, but their demands are con-
fined to their trade, and + arguable,
even if excessive. There are other
trades not as enlightened as our rail
way men, who now have an oppor-
tunity to lead the way to the painless
reversion of prices from wartime
heights to normal. When more men
than are needed are put at the work
for the sake of wages rather than pro
duction of transportation some are
slackers. 1t is true that there is thus
provided an object lesson against Gov
eminent operation, and that the
unions, although they have forced
compliance with their demands, are
put in an unpleasant position before
their countrymen.
The discovery of the u%nionists that
they are also consumers, and that
what they compel to be paid to one
hand they are compelled to pay out
with the other, may serve to direct
their attention to the fact that the
consumers are the masters of unions
and lawmakers alike when their needs
compel them to take charge of the sit
uation. There is now going on an up
rising of consumers, the dominant
partner in all businesses, even that of
Government. Capital has experienced,
is experiencing, the punishment suit
able for mourning a reputation for
predatory conduct. The British
strikers are predatory IS surely as
any trust. Let u workers avoid
even suspicion of eXacting more pay
than their services are worth, or of
conspiracy to limit production and
protect slackers. For example, the
President has asked Congress to in
vestigate wage increases asked by the
railway shopmen. The Director Gen
eral informed him that their ase was
under consideration, but they struck
That is not consistent with the opinion
of the Big Four brotherhoods that re.