The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-16

How much prift does a work man reap from his days labor? How much ought he reap? Does a good living" come under the head of profit, or is it properly a part of the cost or producing days labor? How far can hu- man energies be measured and human values standardized in order that the cost of a, days la Dor may be standardized.
 Questions like these occur in one period or another of every mans thought about a system of economics which shall be more soIidIy based than any which serves us now.
 But a more academic interest attaches to these questions. Tor they are the real, even if un- spoken, basis for much of the ir- ritation and confusion which exists in the industrial world to- day.
 The workingman is beginning to understand that he is ill busi- ness. His raw material is en- ergy. His product is a days
 
 seek a profit above cost of pro- duction, why should not he?
 The difficulty thus far has been in making out the cost sheet. How much does it cost to pro- duce a days work ?-that is the question for which there seems to be no satisfactory basic an- swer.
 It is perhaps possible accu- rateIy to determine-aIbeit with considerable interference with the days work itseIf-how much energy the days work takes out of a man. But it is not at all possible to accurately determine how much it will require to put back that energy into him against the next days demands. Nor is 1t possible to determine how much of that expanded en- ergy you will never be able to put back at all---because a sink ing fund" for the replacement of the body and vital strength of a worker has never been invented.
 It is possible, however, to consider these latter problems in a lump and provide for them under a form of old-age pen sions; but even so, we have not thus attended to the question of profit which each days labor ought to yield in order to take care of all life's overhead, all physical losses, and the inevitable deterioration which falls upon all earthly things
 Moreover, there are questions having to do with the pre-pro- ductive period, which would have to be solved. Here is the man, let us say, ready to begin his service to society by turning out days work throughout his life. How much did it cost to rear and educate him to his present age and usefulness? And how can that be figured as part of the cost of the energy he puts forth as he works to day? Now, if it were the case of a machine you would know what to charge. The machine cost a certain sum; it wears out at a given rate; it would cost such-and-s an amount to replace. It is a sim pie matter to figure the actual cost of the machine and it's pro- GucIlce "OTk, anu aQd the profit.
 Can we do that with men? Rather, can men do that Gor themselves, so that selling a days work and the profit it ought to bring, as any manufacturer ought to have of his product?
 The problem becomes more complicated when you consider the man in all his aspects. For he is more than a workman who spends a certain number of hours at his work in the shop every day.
 If he were only himself the cost of his maintenance and the profit he ought to have would be a simple matter. But he is more than himself. He is @ citizen,