The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-08
MORE PAY; LESS WORK.

1t cannot be too often repeated that
what this country needs is greater
production of the necessaries of life.
A strong effort apparently is being
made by government (authorities
and various commercial organizations
as well as by few labor leaders to
! increase the industrial output of the
country. This movement is of great
Importance and if it succeed will be
most helpful in reducing the high cost
of living. In the clothing and kindred
industries where wages have been
more than doubled since 1914. it is
estimated that per capita production
has declined fully one-third. 1t is OBJ
vious. therefore. that in this and 9TH
er industries the most urgent need is
to increase the industrial output per
unit of worker.
The situation cannot be met, says
the Financial Letter of the Rational
City bank of Chicago, by asking the
public to abstain from buying, nor to
form "old clothes clubs as a protest
against the relatively high prices
char ed by tailors and outfitters. The
more than 1000 strikes Ind lock-outs
that have been reported since Janu-
ary first have entailed frightful eco
nomic waste. The SIS in wages alone
is estimated at about $30,000,000,
while from the reduced production,
the public has taken a loss of prob
ably 125.OOO.OO0. There is no telling
what the indirect loss has been thru
the partial tying up of kindred indus
tries and the dislocation of business
engaged in the distribution of the
products.
Recent statistics given out by the
bureau of statistics of the department
of labor show that the increase in
earnings per hour by employees in
eleven leading industries during the
past six years amounted to 221 per
cent for the steel and iron industry
and from So to "a per cent III various
other industries. The great Industries
could probably stand these increases
without hardship If production per
man were as great or greater in 1919
than it was in 1916. The universal
testimony, however. is that production
has actually declined in almost every
instance as wages have advanced. The
consequence is, of course, that the
country is doing business today at the
highest expense ratio ever reported.
Altho present labor difficulties in
the United States have broken out just
at the time when industry otherwise
would have accomplished the difficult
adjustment from war production to
peace prosperity with most crafty
ing ease, the National Bank of Com
merce in New York believes that the
strikes now in progress will pass away
thru sheer multiplicity. In it's general
Market Letter in the November issue
of Commerce Monthly, the bank says:
Two factors in the situation offer
hope for an adjustment by means
which may yet serve to avoid any
serious shock to the industrial and
business community. The first of
these. paradoxical as it may seem, is
the very multiplicity of strikes. When
a strike occurs in a single industry
both labor and capital outside the zone
of disturbance IN the main escape the
direct evils which result, altho they
suffer indirectly. When strikes be-
come general. however, labor and cap
ital at once become a part of the ILL
defined group known as the public.
dispute may not suffer to the full the
results of their own differences, they
become victims of the struggle going
on between other similar groups. The
present situation cannot do otherwise
than lead to a realization of this fact
and this discovery ought to prove con-
ducive to a spirit of corciliation.