The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-03
OUR MopERN KING- oANUTE.

OOR MOOEftN AlNGr IAN C1E.
Despite the loud talk Of Samuel
Gompers about the maintenance of
wartime wages, those wages are be-
ing reduced. The law OF supply and
demand cannot be set aside perma-
nently, at the command of any man.
Mr.. Gompers can no more stop the re-
adjustment of wages to accord with
the readjustment of commodity prices
than could old King Canute turn back
the tide OF the ocean.
Mr.. Gompers's insistence upon ice
cream and automobiles for labor, at a
time when unemployment is steadily
growing, seems out of place. 1t is a
time when labor and capital should
confer on how to keep the ma
chinery going instead of striving 70
cling.to the luxuries of the war-fevsr
period.
Any attempt to keep wages at a
level which entails the sale of the
products of industry at a loss is bound
TO end in ultimate disaster. Such pay
roll charges cannot be met forever out
of reserves or accumulated profits.
The root of the evil lies in the fact
that the rewards of toll are unevenly
distributed among various groups of
producers. Until this equilibrium be
restored, industry is bound to lag and
business will, show more or less stag
nation.
There is a tendency on the part of
many casual students, says the Wolf
man Review, to view widespread wage
reductions with much concern, on the
theory that they mean a reduction N
purchasing power. AS a matter os
fact they mean no such thing. If car
ried to their logical conclusion, they
would increase purchasing power. In
many industries production costs, as a
result of high wage scales, are so ex-
cessive that goods cannot be sold free
ly. This results in a 1essened demand
for raw material and less buying pow
er for those who produce the raw ma
terials, such, for instance, Nas in the
wool growing. cotton raising and cop
per mining industries. With lower
costs of manufacture, the finished
products would find a reader market,
the demand for raw materials would
increase, with probably some rise in
price This would give these produc-
ers substantially increased buying
power, and the reaction upon indus
try would be found in a tendency to-
ward greatly increased employment,
higher aggregate wage payments, and
sounder state of prosperity in gen.
eral.
The farmer selling his products on
wage basis of soc per day cannot
absorb the output of industrial labor
at the old wage scales. 1t isNcont-
mendable to champion high stand
ard of living for Industrial labor, but
the ice cream and automobiles that
Mr. Gompers talks about should not
be forthcoming at the expense of 9TH
er producers such as agricultural la
Dor when the plight of the latter is
relatively more distressing.
Industrial labor is asked to take
lower wages in order that other pro-
ducers may sell more freely of their
production and obtain a return 70
which they are entitled. 1t is also
asked to accept a lower wage because
the buyers of other countries cannot
afford to pay the price for goods
turned out on the basis of our old pro-
duction costs. The employer who is
so bitterly assailed is nothing more
than the medium thru which the in
evitable readjustment is being ef-
fected.