Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-09-06
NEITHER MONEY
NOR GOMPERS TO
SET WAGE
Prices on Both Labor and
Capital Governed by Sup
ply and Demand.
WAGES MUST GO LOWER
Special to Indiana Daily Times
md Philadelphia Public Ledger.
By C. b. EVANS.

By c. b. EVANS.
CHICAGO. Sept. 6-The reduction In
working forces and wages in the West
is perhaps as pronounced as in the East
except in those industries, such as build
ing in Chicago, in which Illicit agree
ments between employers and employed
exists. and the worker accepts smaller
compensation with good grace gen
orally for he has been wiser in the
main than the man expecting to make
million dollars who has failed because
he stayed in the game too long. Seem
ingly It Is only a few labor leaders who
deny the necessity for reduction in
wages. Others fatuously declare 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 pimple Of
S27. 500. 600 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
prick Of fate among the multitude that
mankind is suffering at the present time.
The little lotion Of Mr. Gomper's oratory
is not even a palliative. The thing must
run its course. No design OF man or
multitude can change 1t, but the com
bined activities of mankind, responsive
to self interest, will achieve. Complaint,
grievance. remedy dictated by theory
antagonism of classes, obstruct. Mr..
Gompers, Mr.. Morgan equally, must bow.
Mr.. Conant, Mr.. Sieberling, have bowed
with a vengeance; the stock market has
bumped Il forehead on the marble floor
of the exchange. The bowling and bump
ing are not over.
Nor is 1t In the power Of labor leader
or a financie- put wages or prices up
or down. That Is effected by the attrt-
ton of competing interests. An employer
raises wages when he needs more men
and a shortage cOmpels higher figures,
and he reduces wages when the supply
is excessive. He acts from selfish mo-
tives. as does the worker when he de-
mands more pay. These motives and &C
tions are modified to some extent on both
sides by considerations of good will, but
in the main they are the controlling
forces.
The same principle Of demand and
supply applies 10 the rate Of interest
There is just as much selhshness 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 IN
capable of creating an per cent market
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 average whole
sale price of 100 articles went off 40
per cent before these was any reduction
in wages except some small cutting here
and there.
The cost Of living has declined some
what. but there appears still to be a
wide discrepancy between wholesale and
retail prices. Retail merchants say this
Is due in part to the still unreduced cost
Of the labor they employ. This In many
asses is more plea than fact. re-
taller disposed 10 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
ard value. The cost Of living certainly
has not declined proportionately to the
decline in the Wholesale prices. but that
is partlv because of the small decline
in wages.
We may or may not reach the price
levels prevailing before the war. We
certainly cannot do so without further
reduction in wages. The claim that re
auctions would further curtaiI our
domestic purchasing power, and more
factories would close because the people
had not the money - buy their prod
ucts. Is specious on the face Of it, but
one might reply that reduction of wages
to a certain level would bring back most
Of the men now unemployed because the
manufacturers could then afford to make
goods and at the lower prices there
would be plenty of buyers. Wages must
take their part in the grand readjust
ment.-Copyright 1921, by Publie
LedC~ Co.