The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-05-13
MERCHANTS AND WAGES.


MERCHANTS AND WAGES.
The Labor World has repeatedly
called public attention to the fact
that when the earning power of the
worers is diminished it ikn like man.
ner reduces their purchasing ability.
A number of local merchants we're
beguiled into the "open shop" move
ment led by the Citizens Alliance,
! believing they were contributing to
the growth and prosperity of the
lefty, when as matter of fact they
were supporting cause that was
running their own business.
II When the wages of building work
lers were reduced 20 per cent long
before the cost of living had shown
signs of descending from it's aerial
flight, it meant that those workers
had to go with less food, less cloth
Ing and fewer luxuries. They ad-
justed their living standards to meet
their lower wages. AS result gro
GERS, meat dealers, clothiers, jew
elers, department store owners and
such saw their business gradually
#dwindle, and ever since they have
been hoping against hope for the
good old days such as they enjoyed
during and following the war.
Nearly every jewelry store on Su-
berior street has a red sign on the
outside announcing the salvaging of
stock under the hammer. Dealers in
luxuries are the first to feel the ef-
feet of low wages. The plant of the
Minnesota Steel company at Morgan
Park may soon run at full capacity,
but that will not bring any measur-
able prosperity to Duluth merchants
so long as the workers employed
there are paid at the rate of 80
cents an hour. That small wage scale
barely pays for rent, the cheapest
of food and the barest necessities.
The one dollar an hour mechanic is
the boy that puts the grin on the
I merchants countenance. He is the
!. bird that makes it possible for the
business man to look at the sun in
the morning and to tell his banker,
! il need be, to get off his high perch.
| The measer trade of the underpaid
worker will never make mer-
chants lips curve upward. And Du-
luth buiness men are learning that
truth. They are getting away and
keeping. away from the hypocritical
"open shop movement. If there
were no Steel Trust in Duluth there
would be no Citizens Alliance worth
mentioning, and our old Populist
comrade. l.. C. Harris, would soon
be seeking another client.
Business men do not need to take
The Labor Worlds word for it.
! When antiunionists get among
themselves they can afford to be
! honest with one another, and they
sometimes are. AS an instance, John
+. Edgerton, president of the Ma
I tional Association of Manufacturers,
! the leading American anti-union and
''open shop" organization of en-
+ ployers, said in his report to the
annual convention in New York
Tuesday: "The industrial payroll
! contributes more than any other
factor. to the determination of the
purchasing power of the American
people, and the national purchasing
power is prosperity's weather vane."
That's sound logic to which every
union worker will subscribe, but 1t
does not jibe very we'll with the pol
icy and program of the anti-union
manufacturers who have been slash
/ ing wages to the limit merely be-
cause they think they have the
workers where they want them.
However, one thing is certain i;
there can be no return of general
prosperity to America until the
farmers are permitted to get good
prices for their products and the
workers are paid better than living
I wages for their labor. Speculative
business may thrive under low
! prices to the farmers and low wages
to- the workers, but honest business
! will have a doubtful time of it un.
( til the workers and the farmers are
first decently rewarded for their
services. Prosperity does not come
like mamma from the heavens. II
grows from the ground up.
CIUNTY EXTRAVAGANZA.
;lt;&cost the people of st. Louis
county last year $451,600.9S fo1