The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-14
THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS.

THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS.
Students of the industrial situation
in the United States are becoming con-
WINGED that there is little prospect of
an immediate drop in wages. One of
the strongest elements in establishing
this conclusion is the fact that nearly
every change recently has been in the
direction of a higher scale of pay.
The labor unions that have struck for
/ increases. in most cases, have won
their fights, and almost invariably
have done so where the rate had not
been. recently readjusted upward.
While this apparent tendency may
dash the hopes of those who have
been looking for a reduction in the
living cost, says the Nvollman Review,
it must be admitted that some power
full economic forces, some of them I'M
precedented in character, are arrayed
on the side of maintaining a high wage
scale.
The labor problem for years has
been growing more and more interna-
tional in character. The ease of ocean
transportation, facilitating the shift
ing of hundreds of thousands of I'M
skilled laborers from one continent to
another, has permitted this country
to prosecute much of it's development
work at a lower cost than otherwise
would have been possible. Mining,
construction and other enterprises
have been carried on under European
/ living conditions altho the rate of pay
I,As ctyff oil OF ct 20
tempt old world labor to our shores.
New elements now must be consid-
cred. In the first place we cannot ex-
pect immigration on the pre-war
scale. Emigration, in fact, is likely
to exceed new arrivals. Our military
and naval establishments. in spite of
rehabilitation, will be likely to claim
many thousands of young men who
under former conditions would been
gagged in the productive pursuits of
civil life. The worlds need for food
will call hundreds of thousands to the
farms. Agriculture holds forth the
greatest profit in history. Present
grain and hog prices mean that farm
ers can compete with industrial en-
ployers in bidding for labor. with
board and lodging in addition.
Next to the demand for food prod
ucts comes the impending competition
for labor that will come from bunld-
ing operations. Hundreds of thou
sands of skilled and unskilled workers
will be needed in the construction OF
houses and office buildings all over
the United States. Men must be en-
ployed to furnish the steel, the lumber
bricks and other material needed for
these structures.
Many changes have taken place in
this country since the summer of 1914
We have developed new industries
that call for workers by the hundreds
of thousands. We are building ships
manufacturing chemicals, making dye
stuffs and hundreds of minor neces-
stiles and luxuries that we used to i'm
port. All these operations require la
Dor, and the question is not one OF
unemployment, but shortage of labor
now or in the near future.
We have no European reservoirs OF
workers that can be tapped at will
Europe's wage scale also has been
raised. Whether the dream of an in
ternational wage equalization be real
lied or not, the fact remains that an
unorganized readjustment has already
done much toward removing old dis
PARTIES. American labor has little tc
fear at present either from the influz
of cheap European labor or competi-
ton from products turned out by low
paid workers.
When the worlds storehouses OF
food are full once more, when Europe
is reconstructed and we have over
built our own cities and towns-ther
we can talk of a possible drop In
wages, for we will have a lower living
cost. Just now this development looks
remote and the employer who waits
for it is likely to lose some big oppor-
tunities.