The sun., 1919-09-22
Wages without Work.

when coal miners propose, with still
higher wages, work day of six hours
for only FIVE days week they pro-
pose at the sams time bread lines and
soup houses for American labor.
AZ Coal is one Of the basic factors in
the cost of all manufacturing. 1t Is
one Of the basic factors In the cost of
z agricultural production and distribu-
ton. 1t Is one of the basic factors in
the whole scheme of civilized ex-
istence.
Coal plays an important economic
part not merely in the power which
drives the textile factory, the shoe
factory, the hardware plant, the thou
e sand and one industries which go to
7 supply American needs. Coal is a big
economic item In the cost of the ma
chinery which expends the power, in
the cost of the machinery which
~ makes the unfinished cloth and the fin
ished clothes, which makes the unfin-
ished leather and the finished shoes,
which makes from the beginning to
the end of the process the various and
varied articles of consumption which
one hundred million population re-
quires to satisfy its wants.
Coal is one of the basic factors in
the cost of production of wheat and
corn and cotton, because 1t is one Of
the basic factors in the cost of ploughs
and harrows and reapers and other
agricultural implements.
Coal plays an important economic
part not merely in supplying the mo-
tive power of the railroads which
transport at high charges our national
supplies; it is one of the basic fac
tors in the cost of the rails on the ties,
the cars on the rails, the locomotives
drawing the trains, the bridges across
which they pass and the terminals
where they take and leave their pas
sengers and freight
Goal therefore is one Of the basic
factors in the cost of every bit OF
bread and butter that goes into the
mouth, Of every stitch that goes upon
the back of every man, woman and
child in the United States.
When living costs already are
higher than the American people car
patiently endure, when costs of farm
ing, Of building, of doing business, OF
performing service already are sc
high that they are all but prohibitive
coal miners with their proposal Of
thirty hours of work a week-mean.
ing unfailingly, a heavily reduced vol,
ume of production and correspond
ingly increased cost of production
not merely in the coal fields but in al
iields-simply propose to put genera
capital out Of business and genera
wage earners out of jobs.
This country can't go on doing
business at Unfortunately rising cost;
that automatically deadlock tn,
wheels of industry. Labor can't g
on receiving pay envelopes when the
shutters of mills and factories mus
go up. And if the manufacturer can
sell his products and the wage earne
can't keep his job the farmer cam
sell his products for lack of earneri
TO buy when bread lines are springinI
mp as payrolls fade away.
In the Labor Federation convention
in Lyons last Thursday A. MERRIAM
secretary Of the Metal Workers
Union, long one Of the most aggressiv,
labor leaders in France, aroused {
storm of approval by denouncing mel
who want to make or pretend the!
can make this earth heaven withou
work. He declared that what labo
needed to-day was t. get to work
Any honest man with a level hea,
scan add for him that without work
and plenty Of 1t, this earth can becom
only a hell.
Here in the United States, whel
~ild men are talking about doublin
Pnd trebling their wages withou
working for them, when unscrupulou
men are urging their fellows TO en-
brace national starvation BY abandon