Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-10
THE INDUSTRIALIST SAYS

not increase the production or, more
properly, the supply of real wages
in commodities that money wages
Will buy The essential thing ;s not
to increase the number of counters
or collars Represented in money
wages, but to first increase the
product 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 greater
VIII 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. The can be no successful
avoidance of natures memorable and
hrmly fixed economic law, that the
standard of living can be raised and
the costs of living lowered only by
Il through increased efficiency and
a greater per capita production in
real wages.
The comforts we enjoy as citi-
zens of this nation, whether en-
ployer or employe, are the results
of accumulated production, individ-
ually and nationally. If the individ-
ual and the nation consume each
day all hat we produce each day,
civilization makes no progress, and
we cannot by any possibility have
better homes, better streets, better
clothes, better food nor more of
these essentials than we now have.
BY the same token, if we produce
less than we consume each day, we
will gradually eat upon the COM
forts and conveniences, represented
in the products accumulated in the
past. 1t is, therefore, obvious that
We must at least maintain our daily
production up to the point Of our
daily consumption. We are not ac-
comprising this object in America
today.
The problem of high living costs,
says Edwin T. Meredith, former Sec
rotary of agriculture, cannot be solv-
ed through the efforts of any
group of our people, but all en-
ployers and all employees must rec
ognize the need of more production
as the only solution and hence a
common duty, "or less and less will
there be of products to divide among
the whole people, and higher and
higher will go the price Of that lit
tie which is produced"
Few people seem aware of the fact
that during the last twenty-one
months this country has experienced
the sharpest advance in prices that
has ever taken place during peace
times and on a gold basis.
February witnessed some remark
oh1A rrS~- CF@%%@- 1909 - -4-
cent, Sugar 25 per cent, etc.
The only danger of this remark
able improvement is that it is likely
TO be mistaken by many people as
the beginning of a new "inf1ationary'
movement. If the rise were misin-
terpreted, we would again see the
unwise overbuying and o~verstocking
the speculation in commodities, the
overcapitalization and the launch
ing of unsound enterprises.
But most business men are not
soon likely-to forget the lessons of
that period. Up to now, at least,
they have been regarding the adj
vance with commendable caution.
The violence of recent price advance
does not indicate the beginning of a
new upward movement. Rather it
foreshadows the termination OF the
upward movement that has been 60
ing on for the last twenty months.
What we have been witnessing is
merely a rebound from the violent
collapse of prices in 1921. The law
of action and reaction applies to
economics as it does an physics. The
pendulum of prices was swung too
high in 1919. Subsequently It
swung violently in the other direc-
ton, and now it is swinging back
/ again, seeking equilibrium.
In realistic business terms, the
phenomenon is not difficult to ex-
plain. The first fall of prices
brought caution, further falls fright
ened buyers out Of the market in
the expectation of still further falls,
and then a panicky selling period
developed. Finally consumers felt
that prices had reached bottom;
there was cautious buying prices re-
covered slightly. This recovery Of
prices led to more confidence, and
dealers shelves had been depleted
during the period in which buying
had stopped, so that buyers needs
were great. Restocking then began.
Prices advanced further under this
buying and further price advances
led to more buying in the fear that
prices were shortly going higher
still, Excited buyers usually help TO
realize their own fears.
If we are to have steady employ
ment and continued prosperity
everyone will have to produce and
--s .-S-o.,, -