Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-09-05
COURSE OF NATURE
TO DETERMINE WAGES
Special to Indiana Daily Times
and Philadelphia Public Ledger.
By c. b. EVANS.

CHICAGO, Sept. 5.-The reduction in
working forces and wages in the West is
perhaps as pronounced as in the East ex-
cept in those industries, such as building
In Chicago, In which Illicit agreements
between employers and employed exist,
and the worker accepts smaller cOnpen-
.sstion with good grace generally, for he
has been wiser in the main than the man
expecting TO make a million dollars who
has failed because he stayed in the game
too long. Seemingly it IS only a few
tabor leaders that deny the necessity for
reduction in wages. Others fatuously de-
clare that there is no such necessity and
undertake to hold up wages by talking
too much.
What the levels OF wages and prices
should be, or shall be, is not for Mr..
GOmpers or Mr.. Morgan to say, but is
in the course Of nature, including the
mental processes OF many hundred
million persons. The little pimpIe OF
s27.5c0,O00 a day lost in wages to the
workers of this country, as set forth by
Mr. Gompers, is serious enough to the
few who suffer from it, but is only one
trick Of fate among the multitude that
mankind is suffering at the present time.
The little lotion of Mr.. GOmper's cratory
IS not even a palliative. The thing must
run its course. No design of men or
multitude can change it, but the COM
bined activities OF mankind, responsive
to seh-interest, will achieve. Complaint,
grievance, remedy dictate by theory,
ants gonism Of classes, obstruct. MIR
Compers, Mr.. Morgan equally, must bow.
Mr.. Conant Mr.. sieberling, have bowed
with a vengeance; the stock market has
bumped its forehead on the marble floor
of the exchange. The bowling and
humping are not over.
COMPETING INTERESTS
WILL DETERMINE.
Nor is it in the power Of a labor
leader or a fnsncier to put wages or
prices up or down. That is effected by
the attrition of competing interests. An
employer raises wages when he needs
Hrore men and a shortage compels
higher figures, AID he reduces wages
when the supply is excessive. He acts
from selfish motives, as does the worker
when he demands more pay. These
motives and actions are modified to
some extent on both sides by considera-
lions Of good VIII, but in the main they
are the controlling forces.
The same principle of demand and
supply applies to the rate Of interest.
There is just as much selfshness in the
making of the rental on capital as in
other business operations but the men
Of whom Mr.. Morgan is a type are as
incapable of creating an s per cent mar
ket when conditions call for 4 per cent
as Mr. Gompers is of Initiating wages
with his oratory.
The statement Of Mr.. Gompers that
wages were reduced before prices were
reduced is incorrect. The avera ge
wholesale price of 100 articles went off
40 per cent before there was any re-
duetion in wages except some small
cutting here and there.
MORE PLEA
THAN FACT.
The cost Of living has declined some
what, but there appears still to be
wide discrepancy between wholesale and
!. retail prices. Retail merchants say this
~ due in part to the still unreduced
cest of the labor they employ. This in
many cases is more plea than fact A
retailer, disposed to be extortionate, has
a greater leverage than a wholesaler for
he is selling goods to persons in the
main not good judges of their quality
and value The cost of living certainly
has not declined propoxtionately to the
'2asesias b the Wholesale prices, bat that