The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-12-08

Examine in your W mind the list
Of those whom you have heard demand.
ing defation Of wages. You will find
they are employers of that type. Their
demand for wage reductions is simply
a part of their plan for the destruction
of the trade union movement in Amer.
lea. They have decided that extensive
reductions in wages will reduce the
efficiency of labor unions. They are
WARE that organized labor contends
for a wage scale that will enable the
worker to maintain his family on a
decent American standard of health
and comfort. 1t is this fact that sets
this class Of employers against labor
unions.
But, We hear some say: prices
would come down if labor would come
down" Experience does not prove
this contention. Employers are not
making such promises. We hear some
say that prices have already come
down; that manufacturers have re-
duced their prices and that labor
ought to do the same. Some even go
so far as to say that prices have
reached the pre-war level, and, unfor-
t%unately, they induce some people to
believe such statements. This encour
ages some to denounce labor for fight
ing to maintain its wage standards.
The fact is that prices of the
articles that the worker must buy
have not come down to the pre-war
level nor anywhere near the pre-war
level. And let us all hope that prices
will never again reach the pre-war
level.
Only a few days ago there appeared
in the daily newspapers an article tell
ing about the terrific slump" in prices
Of the necessities of life, and demand
ing that labor accept wage reductions
for that reason. And on the same day
there appeared in the same newspa-
pers an official statement from Wash
ington which said that the general av-
erage of prices of the necessities of
life throughout the country still was
60 per cent above the average for 1914.
Here we find prices still 60 per cent
higher than they were before the war,
and yet these employers are demand
ing that labor stand for a reduction
Of wages to the pre-war level. One
fails to see anything fair in such an
attitude on part of employers. Organ
lied labor asks only a square deal.
Wage standards were far too low in
1914. 1t would be an injustice to force
labor to return to the 1914 level.
America is not a nation of backsliders.
The citizenship Of America believes in
progress, in going ahead and not back
ward. 1t is contrary to every Ameri-
can thought and a violation Of every
American ideal to encourage a policy
of sliding backward from the 1921
standard to the standard Of 1914. Let's
forget 1914, in business, in industry
and in u every day interest in hui
mainly. Let's look forward and beyond
the present and strive for the attain
ment of better things. Let's work for
the upbuilding Of our country and all
that it contains. Let's swear new al
legiance to that true Americanism
that is founded upon the rock OF JUS
tice and the square deal. A nation is
what it's people make it. Americans
have made this the best country in
the world by going constantly forward
in the path of progress. Let employer,
employee and everyone else stand TO-
gether and not only maintain the 1921
standards Of living and Of industry
but make them better as the years
go by. The harmony. concord and
unity that is so essential to the flu
ture cannot be inspired by a defation
of wages and a return to the standards
of the year 1914.