Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-06-02

MONE1 HAGEO vs. NEAL "<Ao1S
Production. Not Wages, Regulates
the Standard of Living.
AS a matter of fact, the standard
of living does not depend at all upon
the level of wages, but upon the pro-
ductive efficiency of labor and in
dustry. Wage earners do not in the
final analysis sell their services to
the employer, but really to tile con-
suming public. The wage-earner Is
himself a consumer. In effect he
sells his ser;jces or his goods to
himself. The more wages he receives
the more money he will have to
pay as a consumer for the hlngs
he produces and buys. :.
Wages are the cornerstone of all
prices, because wages do not come
out of capital; they are paid out of
production-out of the money re-
turns from the sales of production.
Relatively little capital is IN n
form of money. The moment a wage
Garner buys a home, a piano n
furniture, or an automobile or makes
any substantial investment of such
a character, he at once becomes a
capitalist in the accepted sense OF
the word.
Wages are of two kinds-money
wages and real wages. Money wages
are what the worker actually re-
ceiVes in coin or currency for MS
services. Real wages are represent
ed in the product of others-in mer-
chandise, commodities and things
which the worker buys with his
money wages. The value and guam
tity of the workers real wages de-
ponds upon the per capita produc-
ton of all labor.
Money wages only represent a
claim check for a certain portion OF
the real wages or total production
of all workers in merchandise and
commodities. The portion of real
wages which the worker receives In
exchange for his money wages is
determined by the supply of merch-
andise in relation to the purchasing
power of money wages. If the nor
nal production of labor has been
cut in half, then the purchasing
power of the workers dollar in mon
ey wages is reduced to half of its
former value, because there is only
half as much real wages in pro-
duction to be secured in exchange
for the full amount of money wages.
Money wages represent dollars,
and dollars are only counters which
are used for convenience as a med
tum of exchanging the product of
one worker for that of another
worker. Dollars really have no val
ue themselves, except as they can
be exchanged for real wages in fin
lshed products. Money wages or
counters cannot be eaten; they can
not be worn, nor burned in the stove
or furnace to heat the house. But
real wages can be SO used for they
are represented in merchandise and
| commodities such as food, clothing
fuel, etc.
To increase money wages by adj
ding more dollars or counters does
not increase the production or,
more properly, the supply of real
wages in commodities that money
will buy. The essential thing is not
to increase the number of counters
or dollars represented in money
wages, but to first increase the pro-
duct in real wages. The greater the
production, the more real wages the
worker can buy with his money
wages, for the more real wages
there are on the market, the great.
err will be the purchasing power OF
money wages.
The cost of living can never be
lowered through the imitation of the
wage level by adding more counters
or dollars to money wages either by
legislation, or by collective bargain
ing, or by collective coercion and
violence. There can be no success
full avoidance of natures memorable
and firmly fixed economic law, that
the standard of living can be rasied
and the costs of living lowered only
by and through increased efficiency
and a greater per capita production
in real wages.
The comforts we enjoy as citizens
of this nation, whether employer OF
employe, are the results of accumu'
lated production individually and
! nationally. If the individual and the
! nation consume each day all that We
produce each day, civilization makes
no progress, and we cannot by an
possibility have better homes, bette
streets, better clothes, better fooC
nor more of these essentials than WI
now have.
BY the same token, II we produc
less than we consume each day, w
will gradually eat up the comfort
and conveniences, represented in tn
products accumulated in the past.
is. therefore, obvious that we mus
at least maintain our daily produc
ton up to the point OF Jul daily con
sumption. We are not accomplish
ing this object in America today.
The problem of high living cost
says Edwin T. Meredith, former SEE
rotary of agriculture, cannot b
;. solved through the efforts of,any on
group of our people, but all employ
! ers and all employees must recogniz
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