Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-02
n HE Brotherhood of Loco d
motive Engineers scrutlnlzlny
a wage that increases 100 per

wage that increases lOO per
cent. in dollar marks but during
that very process so shrinks in pur-
chasing power that it will not buy
as much as it bought before has the
| horse sense to see that such con-
trivance cannot solve the cost of llV-
ing problem.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers has the manly frankress
to declare:
THE true remedy for the stu
alton, and one that will result in
lifting the burden with which the
whole people are struggling, is for
the Government to take adequate
measures to reduce the cost of the
| necessaries of life to a figure that the
present wages and income of the
people will meet"
And the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers has the sturdy in
dependence to go straight to the
spot where these truths need first
to be driven home-the White
House.
1t is an inestimable service which
this great labor organization mas
performed in popularity exposing the
economic hallucination that you can
put dollar of cost into any article
labor cost or any other kind
and have it come out only the dol
lar which went in. Not merely to
the great merchant but to the push
cart peddler it is the A B C of his
I business that when an added dollar
of cost goes into any commodity in
any stage of it's journey from pro-
| duction to consumption it canuot
escape taking on new dollar marks
| 1t must take on the percentage of
profit which has to be ad,ied to the
new cost. 1t must take on the per-
centage of economic waste the
goods that spoil, or rot, or shrink:
| the goods that go to consumers who
never pay; the goods that are burn
| ed up; the goods that are lost; the
goods that are stolen. The cost of
all this economic waste must go Into
! the rest of the commodities which
| finally reach the consumers.
If to the new dollar of wages, or
of freight charges, or of taxes. or
whatever it may be, is further added
only a reasonable 10 per cent for
profit, that new dollar of cost he
comes $1.10. If to that new dollar Of
cost is added for the economic vast.
age only 10 per cent, that new dol
lar of cost becomes $120. If to that
new dollar of cost is added only IL
necessary 5 per cent. to take care
of all other items of operation and
handling, that new dollar of cost be-
comes dollar and a quarter.
This will happen-it must happen
If the article into which Is first IN
jected the new dollar of cost goes
straight to the ultimate consumer
from the point-farm, mill or fac
tory-where 1t is injected. But as
the vast bulk of all commodities
never goes straight from the point
of origin to the point OF ultimate
consumption, as it goes. in fact,
several Journeys from farm or mine
or mill or factory, thence to the jon
/ Der, thence to the wholesaler thence
to the retailer, the profits and vast
age and other charges must be add
ed not merely once but again and
again.
In such a predicament profiteer-
ing cannot possibly be the expla-
/ nation of our inordinate cost of lIN-
! ing. Profiteering in food at a time
| like this ought to be dealt with
as sunshine that if excessive profits
were absolutely eliminated, if only
a nominal profit were absolutely do
creed, if even every vestige of proIS
were absolutely eliminated, there
still would have to be the multiple
| cations of the economic wastagc
and other costs which so on stead
! lily all the way to the hands OF
the ultimate consumer.
And this is why the locomotive
engineers went to the right spot
with their demands for lower costs
of commodities. They went to the
right spot when they went to the
White House, because it is tic
Washington administration which
has injected a highly artificial, Il
grossly inflated, an acutely danger
ous cost, inevitably multiplied all
along the line, into the production
of everything.
When dear grain makes dear
meat and dear food of all kinds 1T
must make dear wages. 1t must
then start the vicious circle whicn
the clear headed locomotive ell
gineers recognize. 1t must start the
multiplication of costs so that the
dear grain, first expressed in dear
food. then re-expressed in dear
| wages, comes out in dearer shoes,