The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-11-03
THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

pect that it will be handled with little more science and little less dogmatism than was common in the past. Professor| Taussig's article on the subject in the Sep tenn Atlantic Magazine will not meet with the approval of high tariff advocates, nor with that of unmitigated free traders, eith CT, but it has a tone that makes one wish there were more professors ill politics in order that professors might be less didactic, and politics less foolish. Professor Taus- sig's analysis of the sources of high wages has pertinence quite aside from the tariff question. Wages are kept high, not by the exclusion of foreign competition (althO that may make living wages and reasonable profits possible in certain industries), but by the general high level of productiveness. The American farmer produces more wheat than his European brethren, ''not only be- but also because he works moro intelligent fly, uses more and better machinery, takes better advantage of the plenty of land, and gets his wheat to market more cheaply;' the American copper miner outdistances the foreigner "mainly because the mining methods are better, the machinery more perfected, the transportation of ore and materials cheaper, the dressing and smelt- ing and refining processes more advanced all the advantages of largescale operations better utilized;" and in general "our coun- try's high rate of wages rests on high general effectiveness of industry," which lis ''largely the product of national spirit, temper, and adaptivcness.
 This is to repeat the platitude that high wages are not permanently possible without high per capita production. But even this hoary tr,lism is but one-half of the equation. It is equally true that high productiveness is not possible without high wages. The two go together; men of skill and intelligence will not work for starva- tion wages! high wages are not possible unless the worker possesses skill and in lteligence. Wages were originally high in this country because of free or cheap land and numerous opportunities, and it might be demonstrated that greater effectiveness was an inevitable result. Just now wages in some trades are advancing more rapidly than production, but this is probably a passing phase that will be corrected by set tied condition and better understanding between employers and employed.
 The urgent appeal made for funds to establish Ruskin College, the working-class college at Oxford, on firm financial basis is not likely to remain unheeded Among the signatories to the appeal-a significant evidence of the wide-flung sympathies it evokes-are MT. Balfour, MT. Clynes, Lord Robert Cecil, MT. Arthur Henderson, and Miss Macarthur. The college, which was founded twenty years ago, but has always been hampered by lack of funds, now de- sires to add Woman's Hostel, that the same opportunities may be afforded the working women as are possessed by the working men. Perhaps upon nothing more than upon sound education, with it's accom- panying discipline, does the welfare of the labor movement depend, and therefore the support of Ruskin College belongs not, to one class or party, but is the very vital con- cern of all.-Ex
 It is a cause for satisfaction if the
 country, as political observers are begin ming to report, is cold toward professional soldiers as presidential candidates. It would
 be amazing for country like America in
 these times to accept as it's chief>magis- trate man who had spent his whole ma ture life in the army. A military career as a profession is very far from being a train