The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-10-17
For the Good of
the Community

EVERYBODY is complaining these
~ days Of the high cost of living. Food
stuffs, clothing, housing, in fact, every
thing that man is compelled to buy or use
has increased enormously since the war
in Europe began.
Labor, common and skilled, of all kinds
costs more today than ever before; in
some instances it has increased as much
as 200 per cent, and the cry is for yet an
other raise.
Strikes are reported almost every day.
Uncertainty exists all over the country.
= The wise bushes man, the manufacturer,
the wise laborer, the consumer is asking
where will it end? What will be the out
come? Are we to have revolution?
Anarchy?
It is exorable law of economics that
cost of production and selling price of the
produced article go hand in hand If la
Dor costs more the thing labor makes
must sell for more The laborer for day
may have money money in his pocket, but
the cycle started with his increased pay
continues until it reaches him with in
creased cost of what he consumes, and he
consumes the thing he makes.
If rs or so or so per cent is added to the
cost of producing ton of coal, ton of
iron, thousand feet of lumber, a suit of
clothes or a bushel of flour, this must of
necessity be added to the selling price,
and the man that helps to produce it must
bear his share of the increased cost, in
Guiding his wages.
Vice President Noonan of the Brother
boo6 Of E11octrioo1 Worlrorc cpoo Iyi,,r Of
convention of that organization in New
Orleans is we'll worthy of serious consid-
GRAFTON, not only by those who are con-
stantly demanding higher pay for their
services, but by all who are interested in
the solution of the problem that is upper
most in the minds of the American people
today. In the course of his speech he said:
eve cannot force the contractors to paw us
more than they get out Of their contracts. The
employer cannot force us to work for less
than we can live on. The public cannot af-
ford to pay exorbitant sums for work done.
fitting wages, on the one hand, results in tilt
ing prices on the other The mass of people
cannot stand this forever.
capital everywhere is studiously consid-
ering ways and means to intensity production
of goods and materials as the only solution.
We, in turn, must consider ways and means
to intensity production by doing more
work in the same time than we have been
doing
"Gone is the day when we could think it
was simply case of getting all we could for
our labor. Gone is the day when capital en-
deavored to get all that it could for the least
thad to pay. It has now come to condition
where capital and labor are vitality concerned
in the economic disaster that is sure to over
take our country should conditions continue
as they have been going
eve have fought for the salvation of our
country and it's principles and that end was
accomplished. Now we must work for sal
walton from threatened disaster that looms
more ominously than did militarsm. The
day of dog-eat-dog has passed. Go home and
put your shoulders to the wheel, stop extrav-
agances and do all that you can to choke
radicalism wherever you find it.
There can be no sterilization of prices or of
business so long as agitators continuously foment
trouble and strife between employer and employee.
The Woodworking, conscientious laborer who is
willing to give an honest days work for an honest
days pay, and the conscientious employer who is
4 L l-,- 80,