The Connecticut labor news., 1923-06-22
ADEQUATE AND EVER RISING WAGE NECESSARY TO LIFE OF INDUSTRY
 -GoMPERs Growth of Commodity Production Per Person Cited in Declaration That Wage Cutting Means Disaster.

thing as businesl cycle. But whether there is or not, a better pre- ventive of industrial depress1oa that any brought forth by Mr. Hoover's excellent committee is the continued payment of high wages, the continued , advancement and improvement ot standards of living, the continually enlarging capacity of wage-earners to 1 purchase, use and consume the pro- l ducts of American industry ] Improvement in productive pro- l cesses goes on without interruption Improvement in employment rela- 1 tors in the increasing of production goes on continually. The elimination of waste in industry is being achieved with the help of labor and with the help of scientific workers in the field of management.
 Productivity Keeps Growing. These things mean that produc- | tivity per capita grows ever larger and larger.
 "Only some cataclysmic destruc- | ton can rob us of the gains we have made.
 Five years from now we shall have made a gain at least equal to
 
 venture the prediction that we shall have increased the volume produc- tion of our industries so that there will then be as much more per person as we now produce over 10 years ago If wages increase so that this tremendously augmented per capita production can find distribution among the masses of our people we shall have gained magnihcently. If such an increase Tn production should come without concurrent increase ln the ability of the masses to pro- cure and consume we should be con fronted by a tragedy of unthinkable proportions.
 "The only road to industrial se- curity, with increased production, is through a constant improvement in the relations between wage-earners and employers and in a constantly growing ability of wage-earners to improve their standards of living, through increased wages, improved working conditions and shorter work-day.
 Statistics have forever robbed |short-sighted and reactionary employ CTS of their excuse for wage reduc- tionS.
 Sound national policy demands ever-increasing standards of living for the masses of American people.
 Old Argument Smashed
 "The facts cited in this editorial completely refute the time-honored excuses for refusing wage increases and show that industries are able to pay fair and constantly. rising wages, that products of high paid labor can compete successfully with products of low paid labor and that American workers are the most efficient work CTS in the world. Finally, they show that unless there IS a constantly ris- ing scale of wages in American in dustry, constantly rising standards, and constant improvement in the gen eral conditions surrounding wage earners, industry can not under any gain in volume of production; that any road except the road onward and upward Is the road to ruin.
 "The debt and the obligation which American industry and commerce owe to American organized labor are not even now fully appreciated. The pro test and resistance of American or gan1zed labor against the drive for wage reductions have turned the tide of industrial depression to the in dustrial revival which MT. Hoover so clearly elucidates
 "The tremendous outpouring of commodities from our great and com plex productive machine must have sure destination unless we are to be confronted by inexcusable and ter rible calamities. The only destina- tion that there can possibly be for this great outpouring of life-sustaining product is within the confines of our country in the homes of the great masses of our people.
 Those who clamor for wage re- ductions, for policies of feudalism, disruption and disorganization in in dustry are in the fullest sense of the word promoting national retrogres- sion and finally destruction Their attitude is the very antithesis of pa and all thinking persons are coming more and more to so regard 1 f t"