The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-12

concerned to take due cognizance of conditions
constantly changing. The result too often, is
industrial stagnation, either continued or tenn
porary, the direct result Of the refusal of wage
earners to continue an unsatisfactory employ
ment of the inability Of capitalism to continue
production under existing economic conditions.
During the last four or five years. as every
body well knows, remarkable changes have been
witnessed in industrial conditions in many parts
of the world. All costs have advanced in an un-
precedented degree. Possibly no single COM
modify has been exempt from some advance
One result has been that the wage Garner in
every branch of industry is receiving, in dollars
and cents more for his services than before the
war, and in many cases more than he had ever
received before, whether or not he is actually re-
ceiving a greater pecuniary reward than hereto
FORE all things considered, is another question,
but it may be said in passing, but not, however,
as conclusive and final answer to the question,
that if the dollar of the wage is worth, in
trinscally, but so cents it must be true that the
dollar of the employer should be measured by the
same standard of value. 1t is really poor rule
that does not work both ways.
If the hypothesis just stated is correct, an
alyticaly, it follows, naturally and conclusively,
that nothing at all has happened except that the
value of the circulating medium, the dollar, for
instance, has become deprecated, through infla-
ton or otherwise. The net result is that the pro-
Queer must charge more dollars for the things he
has to sell, in order that he may pay to the men
he employs more dollars that they in turn may
pay more dollars to the producer or dealer from
whom they buy. Reduced to the simplest FORM
the problem is not so complex as it might SEEM
IL foI
and for either Capital or Labor to insist that
nothing happen to alter these conditions
seems extravagant and foolish. The world has
gone into debt almost countless billions of dollars
to pay the costs of war. Paradoxical as it may
seem, the wealth produced, or released, through
the operation Of tremendously large bond issues,
has flooded the beneficiary countries with sur
felt of wealth. A readjustment will follow. There
can be no doubt of this, and economic conditions
will be adjusted, sanely and intelligently, or
otherwise to corresponding basis. 1t is as idle,
it would seem for Labor to boast that the pres
ent standard of wages, or even a higher one, will
be maintained, no matter what happens, as it is
ton in the selling price of the commodities it
produces.
There is no intention to minimize the diff
cultes of the masses or of the individuals who
are perplexed because of some of the conditions
which now exist. Patience in some instances,
may seem to have ceased to be virtue. Adjust
ments which should be made automatically do
not always seem to be so made. The delay, per-
haps, is due largely to the fact that the economic
| system is ponderous one. Individual needs are
not always sufficiently considered. The result
is individual or collective protest, prompted by
| impotence at seemingly inexcusable delay. OF
course, the fact should not be lost sight of that
heroic remedies must be applied to some of the
conditions which exist today. The profiteer must
be eliminated, as he will be, no doubt. He is but
an incident, however, and has nothing at all to
do with the larger problem which, sooner or later,
must be solved in the process of general readjust-
ment.