Imperial Valley press., 1919-06-11
THEIR NEEDS.

new principle is creeping into wage rela-
tions-the principle of payment according to
needs. 1t has come so gradually we either have
not noticed it or think it has always been there.
Hitherto wages were fixed according to the
market. The employer, citicised for the misery
Of his employe, replied, Il pay what the market
requires
Wages were then what the commodity labor
power" cost. They are coming to be what the
human being who works requires. 1hls IS the
economic side of the principle first announced
by American unions, later written into national
legislation and now embodied IN the greatest or
international documents-the principle that the
labor of human beings shall not be treated as
commodity.
Progress to this point has been painfully slow
Economists insisted that movement IN this dlrec-
ton was impossible and undesirable. LaWmak-
ers were unanimous in declaring such action IN
practicable Employers sWOre that any tempt
to interfere with the fixing Of wages by 'the
hiqqlng of the market would destroy the IN
dustry.
In the first half of the last century few
people began to say that the race dare not l2t
connection fix the wages of little children. 1t
was but yesterday that the social conscience
here and there, Quickened to the hurt aIls-
ING from permitting the labor Of the mothers OF
the race to become an object Of unrestricted
barter.
So the idea of minimum wage for women
crept upon the statute books and through the
courts and into the shop to stand as barrier to
economic pressure applied to the wages of WOnl-
en- These laws insist that the human being back
of the labor power be the first consideration IN
determining wages.
It was inevitable that voices should soon arise
asking why, if living standards for women and
children were to be protected when they entered
industry, why should they not be equally protect
ed while the father stood between them and the
factory? Labor was revolving against the prln-
cre of the dutch auction with the Job award
ed to the cheapest bidder, being applied in the
labor market.
The war came Human strength and human
life were spent so freely that they became eX-
Densive commodities-if they were still cOnSid-
cred commodities Half-starved people could not
fight nor work effectively, nor would they sac
rifce and die for country that rewarded them
with sem-starvation-at least not IN democ-
racv-and was the war not being fought for
democracy!
Wherever governmental agencies were estab-
lished to deal with the wage disputes that sprung
from rising prices, these bodies did not dare set
uD the old labor market standards. The War
Labor Board in the United States gave no heed
to the quotations on the labor market until it
first determined if they were high enough to
maintain health and efficiency.
We have not reached there yet, but the goal
is in sight, where needs and not bargaining pow
er will fix the minimum of wages everywhere.
The industry that cannot pay this minimum must
disappear and not remain to live, vampre-like,
upon the blood and strength Of weakened work.
ing class.
Above this minimum regulated struggle
will still for some time at least tend to bargain
collectively over the exact amount of wages.