The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1919-09-05


ard"
Morrison pointed out that the
award, giving the men $4650 a
week, still left them about $40 per
week in the hole.
If the printers in this case had
been given a raise of $19 a week
most folks would have sasped at the
audacity of the proceeding. But
they would have been merely get
ting restoration of the 1914 stand
ard of living!
1t is not shown by any figures
thus far produced that wages have
advanced ABOVE the cost of living.
In the absence of such figures the
contention that the high cost of liv-
ing is due to higher labor cost is
false on its face.
The Merchants Association of
New York City gets part way TO the
truth in a report issued by a spe-
cial committee after careful investi?
cation. Says this report:
THE inevitable result of infla-
tion is a decrease in the purchasing
value of the currency unit.
HIGHER WAGES HAVE NOT
YIELDED A CORRESPONDINGLY
HIGHER REAL RETURN TO La
BOR. The policy of the manufac-
turer has been to increase the price
Of his product sufficiently to cover
the increased labor cost. Inasmuch
as this policy has been general, the
result has been an increase in price
of all products and hence an in
crease in the cost of living, with the
further result that workers have de-
manded additional wage increases
to offset the continued increased
cost of living. There seems no way
of stopping this alternating increase
in wages and cost of living, except
by increasing efficiency of produc-
tion or by decreased profit per unit
in production, or both. This means
that the manufacturer must event.
ually make his profit through an
increased volume of business with
less profit per unit of product, and
must keep production cost low in
the face of rising wages, by more
efficient machinery, improved meth
ods of management, and especially
by the cooperation and earnest eff
forts of employees"
The fact seems to be that 1t is
the policy to raise prices sufficient
ly to more than compensate for any
increase in wages.
And in case after ease prices are
raised WITHOUT ANY INCREASE
IN WAGES. Prices are raised be-
cause "the traffic will bear" the
raise.
That is where unadulterated, un-
licensed and unprincipled profiteer-
ing enters, And it is the profiteer
whose spurs now goad the nation.
The New York merchants will
not find the answer in the report
of their special committee-not all
of the answer, at any rate. One
simple reason is that workers will
not join in a whole-hearted effort
to bring production to its highest
point if the purpose is to be merely
a greater flood of loot to those bur-
glars whose more polite name is
profiteers and who like to designate
themselves as merchants or traders.
Higher wages have not yielded
a correspondingly higher return to
labor" says the New York report,
and that is truth indisputable,
Lectures on the iniquity Of un-
rest will not eliminate an unrest
that is caused by profiteering.
Tracts and sermons will not
make up for a reduced standard of
living caused by dollar worth 80
cents.
Pious gentlemen who shudder
because they hear rumblings among
working people will not stop those
rumblings by increasing profits.
And the most menacing phase of
the whole situation is that justified
unrest offers to the fanatic agitator
a fruitful field for his work of
spreading unreason. The anti
democrat finds his nefarious cause
helped by whatever of injustice he
may find in democracy.
Persons who have the welfare of
the nation at heart will do we'll to
ponder on these matters in these
exceedingly troublous times.
Who remembers when Everett
made an attempt to take over and