Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-05-26
LABoR'S SHARE

Percentage Cannot Be Increased
Unless Production Is Increased.
While so many folks are talking
about labor's larger share in busi-
ness particularly prohts-not so
much in responsibility of losses,
it is interesting to remember that
when a new factory is built, a new
line put out, an invention Market
ed, seventy per cent OF all money
returns therefrom go to labor.
Thirty per cent goes to dividends,
interest, rents, royalties, etc. Cap
ital." SO called. gets thirty per cent
of all moneys. and out of it must
finance business. Labor" so call
ed. gets seventy per cent and out OF
it must live.
This calculation is based on an
investigation by the National Bur-
eau of Economic Research. Inc. a
creditable body without doubt.
If Labor" gets seventy per cent
of the returns of industry 1t Is get
ting all that the traffic will bear.
Should it get ten points more, or
eighty per cent. 1t would make very
| little difference to each individual.
The per capita return would be but
very little larger. But the ten points
would make a vast difference to
"Capitalu-and would doubtless
| consume profits and wipe out re-
serve. Capital could not obsorb
a thirty-threee and n third per
| cent shrinkage. 1t could not sup
port itself on twenty cents out OF
a dollar.
We are speaking in broad terms.
There are individual cases un-
| doubtedly where capital" gets more
than thirty per cent as also where
it gets less than that-Such, doubt
less, being business like the rail-
roads which are Just hanging on
| or like the beef industry which
| claims less than a cent a pound
profit on meat-but whose turn
! over is tremendous and so Is in a
/ class outside the ordinary.
With such figures before n II
should be clear even to the least
experienced observer that the only
way Labor" as a whole (all classes
| included and averaged) can get an
increased return is to increase pro-
When a jobber can get no more
pdoft--i. e., no larger per cent OF
| profit he puts his energy on IN
| creasing turnover.
Increased production Is to La
bor'' as turnover is to "Capital' IN
If seventy percent of all bust
ness returns is the limit of what the
Labor" traffic will bear--the per
cent cannot be increased, but the
sum total can be increased by turn
ing over more work-by more pro
duction.
such increased turnover OF pro-
d~uction'' does not mean, necessarily,
longer hours or harder physical
Labor. 1t means nor intelligent
application--the cutting out OF such
weak theories as the limitation or
output-the limiting of apprentices
and a forced shortage of skilled Ia
Dor in certain trades.
When Labor as a whole obtains
10 per ceRt of all returns in business
of any given branch OF labor, Ike
plasters, hod carriers, bricklayers' or
! others in building trades obtain
more than their proportionate a
it is bound to be at the expense OF
| other departments of Labor"
A lot of strikes for more pay. less
hours, and less work, when success
full, simply result in a redistribution
of the 10 per cent - other Labor
gets less than its proportion. It is
! absolutely impossible to reduce the
total per cent. without business coll
lapse.
/ wonder how many labor unions
realize this fact. A plasterer at SIS
a day and a restricted supply as a
union rule. is taking from the pocket
of some other branch of labor"
Crazy takers who think that our
\ business institutions "a be main
| tanned on less than 80 per cent of all
money returns best spend a little
time studying how labor" which
! gets 20 per cent can so improve its
earning capacity that the 10 per cent
will bring a larger total.
The people of a Nation cannot di-
vide more than they produce.
The standards of living in the last
analysis must be based on the stand
ards of production.
Where production is very low, as
in Russia, the standard OF living con-
sists of barest necessities.
The standard of living-or a "hV
ing wage" line up with an "equiva'
lent return" in terms of production
Advance the latter and the former
advances, and vice versa
Robbing Peter to overpay Pau
does not change the totals. 1t mere
ly gives one side of Tabor" MOI
than its share at the expense OF th'
other side.