The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-05
costs TO REMAIN HIGH.

COSTS TO REMAIN HIGH.
with full appreciation of the re-
sponsibnity of advising people in the
question Of investing money in build
ing operations" SAW the Manufacture
ers' Record, I'VE have no hesitation
in saying that any one who contem-
plates building work of any kind.
whether it be dwellings or stores or
hotels or factories or highways. within
the next few years need not expect to
obtain any lower cost than at present.
tho there may be occasional temporary
fluctuations in prices"
There can be no reduction in wages
for many years. The demand for la
Dor will exceed the supply. Even to-
day the steel mills and the lumber
mills cannot run to their full capacity
because of the inability to obtain labor.
Most Of these plants are doing their
utmost to increase their output, but
the labor shortage is a deciding factor
as to the volume of their product.
The demand for farm labor is large
ly in excess of supply. in the cotton
fields of the south as well as in the
grain fields of the west. Farm labor
wages will never again return to any
thing like the old figures. The farmer
and the Farm laborer alike have come
to realize that their work is worthy of
higher pay than anything to which the
country has been accustomed in the
past
We cannot draw upon Europe for
millions of immigrants as formerly.
There is no likelihood that for years
to come we can draw upon the Orient,
for even If we desired to do so the
labor unions would not permit the
importation. either of Chinese or Jap
anese or of any cheap labor producing
peoples. Instead of immigration from
Europe. we are having a very consid-
cradle emigration of aliens from this
country back to their native lands.
The reconstruction OF Europe will
require all the labor available there.
We must now take up the work which
is left undone during the four years
Of war, and even that does not cover
the whole situation. Our population
had been steadily growing. but our
industrial development, our house
building. our hotel building had all
been held in allegiance largely since the
panic of 1907. When the European
war began, the Industrial life of this
country was at a low ebb. Our iron
and steel industries were greatly de-
pressed. The European war saved the
situation and turned the tide from the
steady ebb of depression to the flood
of prosperity.
But during the whole war period
we put aside the doing of the ordinary
things OF life in building work and
concentrated our entire activity upon
war work. We now face the problem
of how to build rapidly enough the
million of dwellings which it is esti-
mated America needs. the thousands
of hotels which are needed. the tens of
are needed, and the railroad expan-
sion, without which we shall see stead
lily increasing congestion of traffic. To
the utmost extent of the nations abil-
| ity all of these things must be taken
up and carried forward during the
next few years. Every industry will
be crowded to the limit Of its capac-
ity; possibly not to the limit of it's
theoretical capacity. but to the limit
Of its labor supply.
All of these things combine to make
high costs inevitable. In addition,
however, to this situation we have a
worldwide money initiation. The war
was fought not on cash, but on credit
secured by mortgaging our future. The
enormous debts incurred cannot be
carried and eventually paid except by
the maintenance OF high wages, and
that means high prices for everything
produced by labor To undertake to
debate the worlds currency within the
next few years would bring about in
dustrial and financial chaos
The man who builds now, therefore.
is building as cheaply as it will be
possible for him to do for a good
many years. Moreover he is creating
employment and feeding the stomachs
which otherwise might go empty.
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Even gold. which in the past has