The New York herald., 1922-10-05
Continued from First Page.

generally coming back in dependable
volume. or is the revived activity merely
spotty?
You may very well fancy that 1t is
not altogether clear 10 me why the re-
bound from depressing conditions or
eight months ago should have come on
so fast. No. IL isn't altogether clear to
me. l question II the underlying condi-
tions are right to sustain the premature
boom of recent months. 1t may very
we'll be, however. that am wrong. To
he right all the while is to be a drone
or to own the world.
But the discussion of finance and eco
Monies and immediate business Is not
nv purpose to-day. You are all stepped
IN finance. in economics, in the science
OF banking,-and what you don't know
afout these will be told to you by other
.peakers.
The labor problem is one of our most
- ssing problems just now. The coun-
~ hasn't enough labor to carry on It's
ork, hasn't enough skilled mechanics,
c7ecally in the building trades, to
G. ry on It's work.
With wages advancing lower living
90 Is are not possible. In the steel mills
ard in the textile centers wages have
had a sensational advance, and this ad-
vance was compulsory because OF the
sh1rtage of labor.
In both fields of activity it was ques-
,on of bidding high for labor or smut
ting down the plants Labor, like COM
modities, is subject to the law OF supply
and demand. The wage of labor VIII
never come down until the supply ex-
ceeds the demand.
The law passed by Congress soon after
the war restricting immigration Is wholly
Lob how Ghn r.
age. II this law had never gone on the
statute books. if our portals had re-
mained as free to immigration since the
war as they were before the war and as
they have been throughout our history,
our inflated wage scale would have been
well liquidated before now.
That wages would not defate when
there was shortage of labor should have
been clear to the Washington statesmen.
1t should have been clear to them because
Of the fact that America does not pro-
duce it's own labor. and never has pro-
duced it's own labor since the formation
OF the Government. England. France.
Germany. Italy. and all the countries OF
the Old World produce their own labor.
They do not depend upon foreign labor
TO do their work. Our only domestic
labor outside Of the rural sections. Is
coIored, and in the North that is wholly
negligible. There isn't enough of 1t to
make dent In the situation.
We produce no labor in America for
the reason that there is no sympathy
between the American public school and
the pick and the ak. Put boy through
an American public school, whether he
be the son of an immigrant laborer or
the son of an old line American. the
result is the same. He will have nothing
to do with labor.
And what is true of the American boy
is true of the American girl, in respect
of service. This spirit is fine. admirable
1t is the spirit that has made America
what she is-the richest and strongest
nation in the world. But it leaves us
without labor OF our own and almost
wholly dependent on foreign labor to dc
the plain, simple work that only human
hands can do.
We must have a substratum of plain
labor Modern life and modern civiliza-
ton cannot exist without 1t. We must
have mechanics. carpenters, plumbers
plasterers. bricklayers and painters to
build housing quarters for our people
Modern civilization cannot exist without
this skilled labor and the present short.
age OF It is SO great that mechanics here
IN New York have been demanding and
getting bonuses beyond the union scale
that have run their wagesu up to as much
as SIS a day.
In Chicago prices have gone still