Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-15
Better Times N01v IN Sigh
decorating to Ill Signs on
NQlOnJ Business H0r1z0n
By HARDEN CoLEAx
Especial Cable Dispatch by Leased Wire t
The Journal

tSnGclal OaDlG DlSp3Lcn by Leased WIRE 10
The Journal)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12-Ameri-
can payrolls have been cut six bill
lion dollars during the period of the
last six months. Such is labor's
quick and gigantic contribution to
, the postwar deflation of values.
Forty per cent of the country's 49,
900, 900 workers apparently have been
affected directly by wage cuts, salary
cuts, short time or unemployment.
The other so per cent, with impor-
tant exceptions, seem destined to be
affected some time within the next
year or fifteen months, but the read
justment will be less violent and the
defiation process slower
All signs point to a continuation,
with increasing momentum, of the
business revival which first because
perceptible a month or six weeks ago.
Unemployment is reported to be on
the wane; business is picking up,
though here and there, in individual
Industries, it still lags; and 1921 bids
fair to be as healthy, industr1ally and
commercially, as 1920.
Such are the high lights of care
full survey of our present situation,
conducted by a canvass of govern
mental agencies, trade organizations,
financial institutions and individual
industries. The survey is based on
study of all equations entering into
our commercial life, but is hampered
by lack of concrete facts, almost
amazing, upon which a final summing
up can be made. 1t is given, the re-
suit of days of research, with the
knowledge and approval of govern
ment officials concerned, for what it
is worth.
Imitation Squeezed Out
Six billion dollars of imitation has
been squeezed out of the values OF
commodities during the past few
months by the calloused hands of la
Dor alone. The wage Garner has
Joined the producer, the middle man
and the retailer in bringing down the
cost of living. A commercial agency
of national reputation was quoted
the other day as saying that values
had dropped 40 per cent from their
peak of May and June, 1920.
To obtain an idea of the cut in
American payrolls it was necessary
to go back to the census figures OF
1910 Nobody in the United States
knows today just how many workers
there are in the country. The 1917
census totalled them at 38,00O,OOO.
The government, in 1918. estimated
that it required seven workers at
home to support a man in khaki.
There were 100000 men in the
army; the wage carriers army, by
that estimate, must have been 3d.
100000.
Nobody knows exactly, either, how
much wages have advanced, on the
average, since the pre-War days. A
government survey. however, never
published or referred to before. was
made last year in thirty states among
$50 industrial, commercial and other
establishments, thoroughly repre-
sentative of American business life.
The glst of the reports was that
wages had advanced 144.9 per cent
in June last. the peak of high wages
over 1914.
nual wage of the 38,OOO.OOO workers
was $500. Applying the 144.9 per
cent increase to that figure-and, in
cidentally. that percentage is con-
servative. as certain states. notably
Delaware. have reported wage in
creases up to 226 per cent-covering
their entire population of workers,
the average workers annual wage in
June last was $1,000.
Some Figures
A fair normal rate of growth,
making due allowance for the rush OF
women into industry during the war
period, would bring the country's
total workers up to 45,000,000. We
thus have 45,00O,O0O workers at an
average OF $1,000 a year each, or a
total payroll of more than sixty bill
lion dollars.
Coming to the wage cuts, it was
found. by reports to the labor depart
ment, that almost all the 100000
workers engaged in manufacturing
have suffered reductions, have been
put on part time or have undergone
a period of unemployment. In some
| lines, such as automobile manufac-
turing and textiles, the cuts were
drastic. throwing tens Of thousands
| out of work.
In the basic industries Of oil
producing, lumber and metal min
ing, many workers have been cut.