The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-02-24
Editorial
of the Day
RETURN Or BUSINESS TO
SOUND FUNDAMENTALS

AleAtnueIs pIeSlueilN VI thV +N"ei'i''
Bank of Commerce of New York,
printed in The Economic World:
There are at present a number OF
great business forces clearly at work
building a sound business structure
for 1921. Supply and prices are be-
coming broadly co-ordinated to demand.
The improvement in the liquidity of
credit, which is now in progress, must
develop further; but there are signs
that improvement there will continue.
AS these movements are fulfilled,
as wages and labor are realigned, to
new conditions and as business finally
absorbs the losses incident to della
ton, stabalization on the new level
will become an accomplished fact.
henbeginning OF the year 1921 has
auspicious aspects in the rapid yet
orderly way in which these great
corrections are progressing. The year
must be judged, then, not SO much
by the volume of business that will
be accomplished in it, but rather by
the sounler conditions which will pre-
vail, making the definite return TO
new era of business fundamentals.
Normal activity must come from
within business rather than from with
out. Business can not idly wait for
the public TO resume active buying
1t must stimulate buying by establish
ing a wide prevalence of substantially
reduced prices for goods, which must
be based on increased efficiency in
production and distribution, and on the
acceptance of reasonable margins OF
profits.
In this connection the growing ten
dency of labor TO become more eff
cient and its Willingness TO accept
some liGuiiation of inflated wages
is most encouraging circumstance.
From more than one point of view
the readjustment now going on in
respect to labor supply and demand is
beneficial to the individual worker.
The excess of jobs over workers, the
inflated wages and the lax supervis-
ion from employers which character
lied the boom period were. all in
fluences upon labor contrary to its
best interests. Radcalism encouraged
by labor scarcity, invaded and depre-
ciated the quality Of labor as a COM
ponent in our national economic life.
High wages begot extravaganza that
soon reacted in rising prices, re-
ducng the buying power of those
very wages so that labor's gain was
more apparent than real. There
also developed a Generalization of in
dividual efficiency, because men were
not kept ion their mettle by competi-
ton for work and advancement.
With the return of more rigorous
conditions it is becoming clear that
the best interests of conscientious
labor are served by a more normally
balanced relation between labor sup
ply and demand. Competition for work
means the stimulation OF efficiency,
and stanch Anglo-SaXon individual
ism, as opposed 10 radicalism. An
abundance of labor permits employers
to choose workmen intellgently9and
10 coordinate wages to their proper
part in production costs, facilitating
the establishment Of price levels best
for all.
But employers must play fair and
not attempt TO lower wages unduly
or to enforce greater curtailment
than circumstances warrant They
must recognize that, in any country
worth living in, the standard of liv-
ing tends ever upward. Wage-earners
in the United States are entitled to
the opportunity 10 receive more than
merely the means for bare and joy
less existence in return for real work
we'll done. ANY other attitude on the
part of employers would b. a menace,
not only to the orderly readjustment
of existing conditions. but also "a
sound business progress in the long
run.
| believe we are justified in con-
fidence that these elements of pro-
gressive rcadjustments which are
working toward better times are
now greatly in the majority. The
true need of business is, not stimu-
lation- of the forced-draft order, but
rather a conservative response 10
better conditions as they develop.
Such a conservative, yet confidently
progressive, course is the only basis
for business success this year, as
distinguished from the feverish way
in which business was conducted
during the war and the post-war Pc
riod.
The history OF that period might
be indicated in terms OF unsettled
relative value With a chart Of
price changes before him, and with.
out further knowledge OF what took
place in the world after the first
of August, 1914, one could read in
these changes the transit OF great
convulsion in human affairs. Prices
for personal services, prices OF
physical goods and OF real estate,
money rates and quotations Of cor
porate securities in the stock mar
kets-all would depict the sweep OF
tremendous events. One versed In
the history OF human affairs would
have little hesitancy. in concluding
from these combined changes that
their violence could reflect nothing
short Of great world war. He
could read in them, first the pro-
longed raging of the conflict he could
trace subsequent period of relax
alton from wartime repression mark
ed by extravaganza ami initiation; and,
finally. great reaction, even more
abrupt and violent in its development
than had been the course of rising
activity