The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1919-09-10

may prlng social revelation into the
range Of practical politics" This les
son was suddenly impressed on Amer
lean capital last month, the lesson
being dramatized for capitals benefit
by the coincidence of the railroad
brotherhoods' demand for railroad ma
tionalizatjon with their representative
to the President concerning wages and
the. high cost of living. It is no far
fetched conclusion thai the fall in
prices during August was partly due
tos the prompt recognition by the most
powerful financial producing and dis
tributing interests that the upward
price movement had reached the ut
most limit of safety. Capital in short,
sees that fall in prices is now to
Its own advantage as well as to So
ciety as whole, and it now hesitates
to raise prices even when technical
market conditions might warrant
! them.
AS for labor, it's education from
current experience should not end
with the discovery that it is useless
| to force higher wages if the higher
| wages are absorbed in a higher cost
/ of living. 1t is more important to
| labor to get prices down than to get
wages up. AS a rule, economic his
tory teaches that wage labor gains
from falling prices and loses by ris-
ing prices, provided that the fall in
prices is not attended by unemploy-
rlent. Even before the war prices had
Eeen rising for osme years and wages
had not risen in proportion to the rise
in the prices of the things labor most
needs to live on. During the war and
after, wages in certain strategic lines
where labor was strongly intrenched
for collective bargaining were forced
up to profiteering levels but the mass
OF unorganized wage Garner sand sal
arled people were cruelty pinched by
the extreme cost of living The real
causes of the great rise in prices in
wartime are now of vital interest to
labor, If labor's influence is to be
used rightly in fastening the restora-
tion of normal conditions instead of
being used to strengthen the forces
of disintegration.
One of the most essential thinps
ahead of us is the increase of the pro-
ductlon of the nccessaries of life,
hence strikes are a calamity because
they hinder production and increase
tpriccs.. The Pennsylvania coal miners
won't help the world along or labor
in general by demanding at this time
q GO per cent increase, in wages and
a six-hour day. The practice of thrift
and saving is today an economic viz
tue o. the highest value in all classes.
Thrift and saving force production
out of unessential lines, and thus le-
ducc the prices of the necessaries by
making them more abundant; thrift
and saving also increase the public's
capacity to loan real money to ;Nn
government and reduce the inGati
which has attended the governr,~nt',
financing of the war. The mat!cr g:
initiation has a direct bearing on hi) I
prices, and labor canno: know 100
much about it for it's own sake.
There is a real price imitation in this
country, as there is in other coun-
tries, due to the enormous war bor-
rowings and expenditures of the gov
ernment. The government borrowed
heavily by an extension of credit and
it spent the money thus borrowed
at very high price levels for destruc-
tive purposes. In his recent statement
on initiation Governor Harding, of the
federal reserve board, recognized the
truth in saying that the credit ex-
pansion, which many Identify as in
flaton because Of it's effect on prices,
is measured by "the difference be-
tween the total of the war expendi-
lures of the government on one hand,
and on the other the total amount
raised by the government through tax
alton and by the sale of it's obligations
so far as paid for out of savings"
And to remedy "thc present situation"
not only must we produce and dis
tribute the largest possible volume of
commodities" and "exercise reason
able economies" in consumption, but
also the governments obligations, so
l.far as they arc carried by the banks
must be absorbed" by the people out
of actual earnings. We have also
a greatly expanded currency, directly
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