The Washington times., 1922-09-11

business of the country by the coal and rail
road 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
reducticl of wages
If the late great war has anything at all
to its credit, anything at all that we can
look to as a general advantage to humanity,
it is the fact that the war and the condi-
tions which it created tended to raise the
wage scale.
The effort Of all intelligent people, as well
as humanitarian people, the effort of all
people familiar with social and economic
principles and objectives, should have bean
to maintain this wage scale and the standard
of living made possible by high wage
scale, even though the cost of living should
be somewhat reduced.
We know perfectly well that the suprem-
acy of American products Is not due, and
never has been due, and never will be due
to the CHEAPNEss Of American labor.
It is due to the skill of American labor,
the intelligence and education Of American
labor, the contentment, energy, and enthu-
siasm of American labor, and, of course, in
addition to this superiority Of American
labor, the superiority of American ma
chinery.
The superior skill, education, content
ment, energy, enthusiasm of American labor
are due primarily to the superior American
standard of living and the opportunities,
ambitions, 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 this superiority to kill
his superior skill and intelligence, his con-
tentment, enthusiasm, and interest at the
very root.
It is the extreme of false economy-it is
the utmost of bad management, to say
nothing of the social and ethical questions
involved.
It may be taken as an elemental PROPOSE
ton that no saving from wage reduction
compensates for the loss of production
from discontented labor-or labor rendered
standard Of living and consequent lmita-
ton of those opportunities for education and
individual improvement which make Ameri-
can labor the most efficient in the world
In addition to the injury which a reduc-
ton of wages inflicts upon labor and
through labor upon production there is
the general injury upon all business which
a reduction in purchasing power of the
mass of the community inevitably involves
Is it possible that we business men do
not all realize that great part of the
general prosperity of the war period and
the immediate postwar period was due to
high wages and the general distribution of
those wages in purchases-for the working
man generally spends nearly all that he
earns!
When wages were high, the workingman
and his family bought freely the shops
prospered store stocks were exhausted, the
factories were overwhelmed with orders,
and the fullest market prevailed for raw
material 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 proportionate part Of your
patronage and your profits?
Do you, fellow business man, who run q
factory, fail to realize that your orders
come from those shops, and are dependent
in turn upon the patronage and prosperity
of those shops?
Do you, fellow farmers and fellow miners,
fail to realize that the demand for your
products depends upon the demands from