The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-25
SEEING THE LIGHT.

The Carpenters union of Baton
Rouge. La, has made a voluntary cut
in the wages Of its members. The re-
duction is made, it is announced, for
the purpose of stimulating building.
Thoughtful wage earners are be-
ginning to realize that an unduly high
wage scale is a doubtful advantage.
First, because increased cost OF pro-
duetion requires an enhanced market
price. which curtails consumption and
leads to curtailed employment Sec
ond, because general high wage levels
add to the cost of living, which alb
serbs at least so per cent of the work.
mans total income. The saving at
the high wage level is so little above
the possible saving at the low wage
level as not to compensate for the loss
of steady employment.
1t is said that three million five
hundred thousand men in the United
States are without employment.
Many of these are unemployed be-
cause they refuse to WORK at 81 per
hour demanding $1.25 per hour or
approximately $40 per day. Upon a
basis of IS per day. the waste to the
nation on account of this unemploy-
ment amounts to five billion dollars
annually, approximately the cost of
running the national government.
This loss estimate includes only loss
OF wages. 1t does not include the loss
of lives, the destruction of property,
the bitterness OF feeling, and the in
efficiency in production resulting
the spirit of cooperation and good
will. These latter items, If they could
be measured in money, would more
than equal tire direct loss in wages.
High wages. when they are not so
high as to check production thru
their unfavorable reaction on buying
power, or If they do not operate 20
tinct benefit to the economic we'll
being of any country. So essential %
the general welfare is the prosperity
OF the great body of manual Iaborers,
skilled and unskilled, that for many
years it was the popular belief that
wages never could be 50 high that the
Benefit to society at large would not
offset any incidental i'll effects.
Probably for the first time in his
tory we have learned that we can
have too much of so good a thing as
high wages. During the war and es-
pecially in the two years after the
signing of the armistice we began TO
have this truth sternly brought home
to us. Labor charges played so large
a part in the cost of everything
bought by the public that wage re-
auctions have been hailed as signs of
returning sanity.
Receding wages are either wei
coined or accepted with equanimity
because it is recognized that the bene-
wages meant higher production costs
and higher prices which nullified the
gains from the fatter pay envelopes.
1t is as much to the interest of. la
Dor to have a downward revision in
wage scales, as it is in the interest "
the consumer of labors products.
This is because high wage scales are
| nv AOhScA synonymous Win n1Sn
wages. High wage scales not only in
crease costs to such an extent that the
burden on the consuming public be-
comes unbearably onerous, but they
react upon the workers themselves
and prevent them from getting a nor
NAL return on their earning power.
This resultSin ttSee distinct losses
to society. In the first place produc-
ton costs are kept high because of
the workers insistance on the main
tenance of the scale, thus resulting
in unjustifiabIy high prices. Second,
production Is kept down and the pub
lie wealth diminished to that extent.
Third. and most important of all 70
the body of laborers as a whole, the
aggregate Of wage payments is small
er than 1t would be If the scale were
lower and production were going on
closer to capacity. Fewer men arc
at work, and even those at work arc
employed on leaner schedules. I'm
employment makes a vast hole in the
total payments to masses.
| -
A. E. McKinstry. vice president OF
the International Harvester company
sends in denial that American har.