The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1920-01-16

of profit, or is it properly a part
of the cost of producing a days lab
or? How far can human energies
be measured and human values stand
ardized in order hat the cost of a
days labor may be standardized?
Questions like these occur in one
period or another of every mans
thought about system of economics
which shall be more solidly based
than any which serves us now.
But a more than academic interest
attaches to these questions, for they
are the real, even if unspoken, basis
for much of the irritation and con-
fusion which exists in the industrial
world today.
The working man is beginning to
understand that he is in business.
His raw material is human energy.
His product is a days work. All 9TH
er business men seek a profit above
cost of production, why should not
he?
The difficulty thus far has been
in making out the cost sheet. How
much does it cost to produce a days
work?-that is the question for
which there seems to be no satisfact-
DRY basic answer.
1t is perhaps possible accurately to
determine-albeit with considerable
interference with the days work it
self-how much energy the days
work takes out of a man. But 1t is
not at all possible to accurately de-
termine how much it will require to
put back that energy into him against
the next days demands. Nor is 1t
possible to determine how much OF
that expended energy you will never
be able to put back at all-because
a sinking fund" for the replacement
of the body and vital strength OF a
worker has never been invented.
1t is possible, however, to consider
those latter problems in a lump and
provide for them under a form OF
old-age pensions; but even so, we
have not thus attended to the ques-
ton of profit which each days labor
ought to weld in order to take care
of all of life's overhead, all physical
losses. and the inevitable deterloa-
ton which falls upon all earthly
things.
Moreover. there are questions hav-
ing to do with the reproductive
period, which would have to be SOW
ed. Here is the man, let us say,
ready to begin his service to society
by turning out days work throughout
his life. How much did it cost to rear
and educate him to his present age
and usefulness? And how can that
be figured as part of the cost of the
energy he puts forth as he WORK to-
day? Now, if it were the case OF a
machine. yAwould know how to
charge. The machine cost a certain
sum; it wears out at a given rate;
if would cost su~ch-and-such an
amount to replace. 1t is a simple
matter to figure the actual cost OF
the machine and its productive work,
and add the profit.
Can we do that with men! Rath-
er. can men do that for themselves,
so that selling a days work they Will
have as intelligent an idea of the cost
of that days work and the profit 1T
ought to bring, as any manufacturer
ought to have of his product?
The problem becomes more COM
plicated when you consider the man IN
all his aspects. For he is more than
a workman who spends a certain
number of hours at his work in the
shop every day.
If he were only himself, the cost
of his maintenance and the proht
he ought to have would be a simple
matter. But he is more han HIM
self. He is a citizen, contributing by
his cultivation and interest to the
welfare of the city. He is probably
a householder living under conditions
which represent more than mere
maintenance, in that they represent
the graces of social life. More than
that, he is probably "a father with
more or less numerous progeny, all
of whom must subsist and be reared
to usefulness on what he is able to
earn.
Now. it is obvious that to regard
the man alone, refusing TO reckon
with the home and the family in the
background, is to arrive at a series
of facts which are misleading and
which alone can never suffice even
for d temporary solution of the ques-
tions that concern us.
How are you going TO figure the
contribution of the home to the days
work of the man? You are paying
the man for his work, but how much
does that work owe to his home!
How much to his position as a cltl-
zen? How much to his position as
the provider of a family? The man
does the work in the shop, but his
wife does the work of the home, and
the shop must pay them both: on
what system of figuring is the home
going to find its place on the cost
sheet of the days work? 1t finds ITS
place there already in a sort OF hap
hazard way. If a ma cannot sup
ort himself, his wife, his children
his habitation, his position in socle-
ty-why, he doesn't stay at the JOB,
that's all. 1t isn't a matter OF cost
- 4In vnnffn IL