Norwich bulletin., 1920-04-23
twritten Specially for The. Bulletin0

built structure, we farmers, who have got to keep the thing from tumbling into ruins, if anybody does, need to be mindful of a few first principles.
 There are some things in economics as truly as in ethics which lie at the foun- dation and upon which all superstructures must be erected. They are things which cannot be abolished or amended or trans mogriied by passion or whinl or greed. They are fundamental and as enduring as the clements They are the bases on | which alone substantial building can be done. Any construction built on other cornerstones is like the house built on sand which fell at the first freshet-ano | great was the fall thereof
 Especially does it seem to me necessary | that farmers should keep their faith true | 1 and their eyes clear in present circum- stances, because vast numbers of perhaps equally industrious and, formerly, equally l sane workers are seemingly going crazy over newfangled and utterly preposterous economic fads' We have got to play the | part of balance wheel in the big engine 1 and keep the cranks from driving it either 1 too fast for safety or too slow for useful accomplishment To that end we must, l ourselves, be true to our work and firmly | bedded on our working platform. We
 must ourselves, be we'll balanced. If to ispasmodic and cratic crankings shall be f added the webbing of 1opsided balance
 wheel. then indeed trouble may be looked
 for all over the shop i-'e
 For one thing, we all need to come to a better understanding of what is meant
 by things worth" What do we mean what do you and mean, when we talk
 about what thing is worth ?"
 According to Webster, worth is i that quality which renders thing valua
 ble of useful. Hence, secondarily, he
 says it is often used to express value in
 a standard, as in money. But even he - puts that definition as merely a, common and secondhand meaning.
 5 Right here we farmers are all the time 5 confronted with one of the too numerous ] paradoxes of life, As business men, ] buyers and sellers, we have got to use 5 that word worth in >that secondhand l sense in order to do business with those : who don't know any better We raise t potatoes, say What are they worth ?'' 2 Why, what they'll fetch, of course is T l your answer. But go softly a moment 3 There are at least three elements which S govern the worth" of those potatoes f and market price is only one. As huck- h sters and peddlers and. chafferers we are : inclined to give undue prominence in ou1 e l dealings to that question of market price : But Pm something more than huck- u ster and peddler and a chafferer. If ] !, didn't think you were, too. I'd be an ass :. to waste good printers ink and costly l. newsprint paper in appealing to the high < CT qualities in you.
 ? The market price of potatoes is one ,. gauge of their worth" undoubtedly Bu 1 Eanother gauge is that of their real value
 What are they worth" as food? That! ! question to be settled solely by con = sideration of their nutritive effectiveness r, If potatoes, for instance, are selling fo1 2, a dollar a peck. and analyses and test. }. prove that greater nutritive and digestive ]. value can be had in a dollars worth O ,. beans or codfish or onions or cabbage o I. cornmeal or chocolate caramels. or any :. thing else in the whole eatable list the1 ]. potatoes are not really worth that dol r. lar Certainly they are not to the mal y or woman who has to buy them, becaus S. he can get more food for his dollar il d something else.
 Still another element enters into tn
 question of their worth What does i y cost to produce them2 For "the lahore Q is worthy of his hire That is a state n ment for which we have very high au
 thority. If it cost dollar a bushel t d produce and market potatoes four yea " ago, and, owing to- dearer land and highe $ NdSSu ldDOF dlu GOSlli6T SeeuS ana 1ertll s izers, costs two dollars a bushel to pro ,e duce and market them now. aren't the l. worth any more than they were fou
 years ago?
 m Nevertheless. we have got to straighte n, this tangle out in our own minds, eac I'd one for himself, and each one with du
 sense of his responsibility, not only {
 himself, but to his neighbors and to hi
 country and to his God u. John Milton was paid f5-S25-for th l' greatest epic poem in the English lar u. u. guage, the Paradise Lost. Douglass Fail ls banks is paid nobody knows how man y hundred thousand dollars for tumblin
 about in ridiculous antics before a mol 'n ing picture camera And prima donna
 I have been paid s5,BO0 for an hours sins re ing. What then? Shall we say. becaus Ay a:i three were paid the market nrice fC
 sheir work, that such pricc ma ssd Il lc tr;ie value of that works 'Morth?' Mer :; ly to ask the question is to demonstra ' it's utter absurdity.
 There is growing and very dangerol ne feeling in some quarters that all .wag
 should be about the same, as a matter
 justice Few will presume to state sut @ a Puerility in those exact words, but tc
 many hold it, nevertheless. It is a sym r ton of mental rawness and weakness al of actual ignorance. For work, like 2 . h other things, is ''worth'' what it earn , TO more and no less. And to say that z \ awork, earns the same is to talk nonsens
 One man can do things with steel we
 Y say, which no one else can rival He c;
 make tod!s of q quality and an enduran
 and a perfoi ming ability which are u
 equalled. Should he, perforce., be r
 fused greater Wages than the bungl
 whose tools are comparatively worthles nd Another man, by superior ability al n indefatigable energy, can turn a none
 losing business into a profitable or P. Is fa worth no better wages than t 7 incompetent who would make ducks al
 drabes Of it all if put in charge? 7iul Here are couple of interesting fac oEy which kaye been figured out from t # payrolls of two of the, biggest business be in the wolld; If all the salaries oy sS,00n yea" baid by the American Te latl to tb,r f,,,,,o a,Id 1ele lse frih;,+ed ,1,oa. ars,, s s.l pse.pius u my tb.n e ona .I: e9 teoeisiiis le
 paid just tWenty-eight cents a week me 'n 'n- than at plescnt. That is, they would o4- SC paid until the lack of managerial ah am ity~ at the head driven a1yav b17 fa iI,,ra or adequate wages had wrecked the whl our contraption Then they'd lose u
 twenty-eight cents a week, and go tee deal more.
 T The United States Steel corporati for pays what are regarded as pretty l 1ur salaries to it's managers Exclusive est these high salaries the average wage say other employees is stated at $5.33 d. snd Yet, if all salaries and wages were lun ape ed and divided up equally, giving lay least skilled laborer the same pay W
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