The labor world., 1922-12-16
WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST

The great. injury inflicted upon the
business of the country by the coal
and railroad complications, and upon
the people of the country and upon
the nation itself. is due primarily to
the fundamental economic error that
| wages should be reduced and that
any benefit can come to a country
by reduction o. wages.
If the late great war has anything
at all to its credit, anything at all
that we can look to as a general ad-
vantage to humanity, it is the fact
that the war and the conditions
which it created tended to raise the
wage scale.
The effort of all intelligent people,
as we'll as humanitarian people, the
effort of all people familiar with So
cial and economic principles and OBJ
jectives, should have been to MAIN
tain this wage scale and the stand
ard of living made possible by high
wage scale, even though the cost Of
living should be somewhat reduced.
We know perfectly we'll that the
supremacy of American products is
not due and never has been due and
never will be due to the cheapness of
American labor.
1t is; due to the skill of American
labor, the intelligence and education
OF American labor, the contentment.
energy and enthusiasm of American
labor, and, of course. in addition to
this superiority of American labor,
the superiority of American machin-
cry. i
The superior skill, education, con-
tentment, energy, enthusiasm of
American labor are. due primarily
Of living and the opportunities, am
bitions and interest which That high
standard of living creates.
To strike at that standard of living
of the American laborer is to strike
at the very base Of all his superiority,
to kill his superior skill and intelli-
gence, his contentment, enthusiasm
and interest at the very root.
It is the extreme of false economy
1T is the utmost Of bad manage
ment-to say nothing Of the social
and ethical questions involved.
1t may be taken as an elemental
proposition that no saving from wage
reduction compensates for the loss
of production from :discontented la
bor-or labor rendered less efficient
through reduction Of the standard
of living and a consequent general
prosperity of the war period and the
immediate postwar period was due
to high wages and the general distri-
button of those wages in purchases
for the working man generally
spends nearly all that he earns? -
When wages were high the work
ing man and his family bought free
ly, the shops prospered, store stocks
were exhausted, the factories were
overwhelmed with orders. and the
fullest market prevailed for raw ma
terial furnished by the farm and the
mine.
Do you, fellow business man, who
own a store. fail to realize that the
hand which reduces wages dips into
your till to deprive YOU of a proper
tionate part Of your patronage and
your profits!
Do you, fellow business man, who
own a store. fail to realize that your
orders come from those shops, and
are dependent in turn upon the pat
ronage and prosperity of those
shops?
Do you. fellow farmers and fellow
miners. fail to realize that the de-
mand for your products depends
upon the demands from the factories,
and that thees factories depend upon
the orders4 from the shops. and the
orders from the shops depend upon
the prosperity and the patronage of
those shops, which are in turn de-
pendent upon the prosperity Of the
wage earners, the greatest Individual
element in the whole nation?
The conditions of prosperity are
very economic "house that Jack
built and the foundation of the
house is the welfare of the worker,