The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-12-08
LEWIS ATTACH
DEFEATED WAGES
MEANS CURTAILED BUYING BY
THE PUBLIC, SAYS NOTED
LABOR LEADER
THEY CAN SPEND ONLY AS THEY EARN
Contention That Lower Prices Would
Come With Lower Wages Not
Founded on Fact.

BY John L. Lewis
EDITORS Note-John l.. Lewis needs
no introduction to readers of American
newspapers. For years he has stood
out a brilliant figure in the battles
that have been fought between labor
and capital, a target for abuse as well
as unlimited praise. AS president of
the United Mine Workers he has been
constantly in the public eye and
whether one agrees with his beliefs
or not no n will deny that what he
may say on any problem now confront
ing American labor will be said hon
estly and with as much force as the
man can bring to bear on a subject
that is his whole life's work.
The cruel theory held by a minority
of employers in the United States that
the worker should be forced to labor
for the smallest possible wage that
can be forced upon him is the theory
that has caused the greatest and bit
terest struggles between capital and
labor.
While the number of such employ
ers is small they are largely men who
are in control of the gigantic manu-
featuring and producing corporations
of America that give employment to
scores of thousands. They stand to-
gether under that dire banner, Lower
Wages and Higher Profits" a slogan
that openly asserts their right, or might,
to seize from both producer and con-
sumner.
These are the men that seek with
out rest, excuse or opportunity to
drive the scale of wages downward
regardless of how low that scale may
have fallen through general economic
conditions and these are the men that
fight most bitterly the upward trend
of wages ard are the last to yield to
a pressure that they know will crush
them if they do not yield. The condi-
tons of the wage Garner, his life, hap
piness and welfare of his family are
not considered. While America may
. be proud of the fact that these men
are in the minority as employers yet
it must face the fact that they are in
a dominant, commanding position n
by the very largeness of their opera
ton IAN and do cause a general de-
preston whenever they can force a
lower scale and set an example whose
psychology is bad for their fellow en-
ployers as we'll as the nation OF work
ers. They make their proposals or
lower wages not because their bust
ness is endangered but because they
believe they are in a strategic posi-
ton that will allow them to put it
over"
The cry "Defation of Wages" does
not come from the great mass of the
American public, because the public
is aware that deflatiOn of wages would
leave industry strangled and impotent.
Debated wages means smaller earn
ing power and smaller incomes for
the workers. Smaller incomes
curtailed buying power. Curtailed buy
ing power NEAR less demand for the
products of farm, factory, mill, mine
and shop. Less demand means re-
stricted production. Restricted pro-
duction means less employment for
the workers and a further shrinkage
of their incomes and their buying
power. The public understands all Of
this, and the public has no desire to
bring about the operation of such a
vicious and destructive circle.
We do not hear the cry for debated
wages from the wage earners them
selves, for they realize better than
anyone else what defation of wages
would mean to them. They know that
debated wages would bring upon them
hardships, suffering, privation and de-
NAL of many of the real necessities OF
life to just the extent to which the
deflation process might be carried. 1t
is strikingly manifest that the work
ing people of America are having a
hard enough time to get along upon
their present wages, without subject
ing them to the process of de1ation.
Nor do we hear the cry for defation
of wages from those business men from
whom the working people buy their
food. clothing, tools and other supplies.
Reduction Of wages, and that what's
defation means, would seriously affect
the welfare of these business men for
it would reduce the volume of their
business. People can spend only as
they earn.
If you will look around a little you
will also discover that the demand
for deflation of wages is not coming
from the class of employers who give
a humane thought to the welfare of
their employees. And there are many
such employers in this great nation.
These are the same employers who
are opposed to trade unions and deny
their employees the right to organize