The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-02-06
PROFITS AND WAGES
SEEK REIMBURSEMENT
A SANE DISCUSSION OF coNDI.
TONS AND WHAT MAY BE
EXPECTED.

Ton. lHlS NTH 10 All dutuoiity oiis uic
metal markets, particularly copper, an
unusual interest attaches to its dis
cussion Of market and industrial con-
ditions. In reviewing the situation on
January II. Hayden, Stone & Co. said
Rsadjustnent Period.
THE outstanding feature Of the
present situation is on the one hand
q stubbornly firm market for securi-
ties, and on the other an almost COM
plete prostration of business, so far
as forward buying Is concerned. Most
of us realized that between the abb
normal war business of the last four
years and a healthy peace business
there must intervene period of adj
justment, but probably few were pre-
pared to see so complete a cessation
of buying. AT the moment there is
practically no quotable market for
most Of the great staples, while on
the nominal market the margin of
profit on the basis of wartime costs Is
actually less than normal.
Under these conditions, one of two
things must happen--either securities
must undergo a further sharp reduc-
ton, or else business must soon pick
up. We are optimistic enough to be-
lieve that 1t will be the latter.
"A period of deflation such as we
are now passing through Is unpleas
ant, but is absolutely essential as a
foundation TO building up healthy
peace business, and in more than one
sense Is blessing in disguise. The
fact might as we'll be frankly recog-
nized that both capital and labor have
been receiving abnormal returns and
that both must be prepared to take
less. This means on the one hand
that corporations are professionally
going to earn less money and, in not
a few instances, dividend rates will
have TO be reduced On the other
hand, despite all talk to the contrary
wages must-eventually--co down;
not to the pre-war level, but to a very
material extent. Talk of labor con-
tinuing to receive war wages while
capital receives peace profits is just
as absurd as 1T would be to talk of
capital continuing to receive war pro-
fits while labor receives peace wages
A deflation of one without the other
would not only produce an unbalanc-
ed situation, but one physically inn
possible to continue.
mot that anyone wants to grind
labor down to the lowest possible fig
ure. on the contrary, every fair mind
ed man. 1t seems to u.s. must be in ia
vor of the living wage, one that viii
support a family in decency, and with
every opportunity to earn more as the
laborer's value Increases. But there
Is a vast difference between a living
wage and war wage However,
there Is no need ito get worked up over
the subject; the matter will work it
self out according to laws as immut-
able as the law of gravitation. The
great difference between the position
of capital and labor today is that the
directors of corporations have recog-
nized that the period of abnormal war
profits was necessarily temporary
and have provided so far as possible
against this very emergency Conse-
'quently, most companies, today, are
well fortified in treasury resources, In
short are prepared to weather per-
iod of reimbursement with the least pos
sible inconvenience. The great rank
and file of labor on the other hand,
have spent war wages as fast as re-
ceived. The danger is that If the per-
iod of readjustment is too prolonged
there will be hardship, and hardship
always breeds disorder.
Meantime, while forward buying
Is lacking, the reimbursement under
meath the surface is steadily going on,
Stocks of jobbers and manufacturers
which. perhaps. are unduly large, are
passing to the retailers, whose stocks
are certainly abnormally small, and
from them to the final consumer. We
believe 1t will not take long to COM
piete this process, and the minute
that 1t is completed buying will start
in agaan and mark the beginning, we
believe, of very large business. We
should not be at all surprised If this
buying first made its appearance from
abroad. 1t would then be quickly
taken up here.
TT would be mistake to suppose
that goods will go back to pre-war
prices before this buying starts. In
short, the reductions already made
probably constitute the majority of
the reimbursement
lone feature that must always be
IN evidence before we can expect any
uplift in securities or expansion gen.
orally is beginning to make it's ap-
pearance namely, easier money. AS
inventories are liquidated and prices
recede, this tendency should increase,
though perhaps. nothing that can be
termed real ease will be In evidence
until after the next Liberty Loan.
"One feature that initiates against
an early completed reimbursement is
the continued unsettlement over the
railroads. The most encouraging fea-
ture here is that all parties are at last