The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-16

AS result 0t z4 < 3z8l : the agreement, % -. engines for the AZ TassGS Union Pacific and 24 for the Louisville and Nashville railroads will be assigned to this plant.
 "In connection with the agreement, wage earners have sent petitions to the Dunkirk doctors and merchants asking for reduced fees and cuts in margins of profits on merchandise.
 Do you recall that when New Eng land textile mills granted an increase in warges some time ago, there imme- ; diately came from the workers com plaints that every merchant and baker and butcher and everybody else prompt 2 ly raised prizes, so that the workers got little, if any, benefit from their : increased pay? 8oSs
 In some countries they do thing diff ferently. In Paris the other day the authorities ordered reduction in the price of bread following a decline in the cost of flour. (Incidehtally flour in this country is distinctly cheaper than it was a year ago, but are you paying any less for bread).
 Henry Ford declares that whenever business becomes poor the first thing employers think of is a reduction in wages. Ford claims that this is not his idea of how. to improve business but that his way is to lower prices and encourage people to buy more. He req sons that by cutting wages employers diminish the ability of the main body of the people to buy and this makes bad situation worse.
 Now what do these various facts sug- gest2 What train of thought do they start in your mind?
 Frankly, I believe that in the past workers did not receive enough consid- eration. There was too widespread a readiness to make workers the first ones to suffer when business became unsatisfactory. In those days workers were less able to defend themselves than they are today.
 Employers did not then give enough attention to their owna shortcomings, that is, the shortcomings of their man agement. It did not occur to them that dwindling profits might be partly, if not largely, due to poor management Also, in bygone days the maintaining of dividends was too often regarded as more important than maintaining wages.
 Employers haven't all grown wings. We know that. Yet l believe that American employers taken as class, are distinctly more considerate of work CTS today than they were in former times.
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 Yes, know that the new attitude has not been brought about wholly through change of heart on the part of
 
 been brought about by pressure, if not aAeer force of necessity Labor has be- come better able to bargain with ena- ployers. Indeed, in not. few industries the union leaders have become more powerful than the employers in the mat ter of dictating wages, hours, etc.
 At that the majority of our younger generation of chief executives are more deHloneratic, more broaIiminded, more open to reason than the old type of employer. He too often was dictatorial. He too often regarded his. treatment of his workers as nobodyis business but his own. He too often regarded his hands as nothing more than part of his machinery for turning out his product.
 cannot help associating in my mind this Dunkirk incident with what has just been done in Paris.
 Taking long look ahead, does it not occur to your mind that the working classes in this country will not always remain content to have their wages re- duced and leave others free to maintain their prices and charges at any level they desire?
 Is there not in these two incidents, both a suggestion and a warning for employers as we'll as American retailers, professional men and others who draw their living from workers?
 Manufacturers and other producers would do we'll not to forget that even In this democracy we learned something. about governmental price fixing during the World war. If the majority of the people should become convinced that employers are too ready to lower wages and not ready enough 10 lower prices eorrespondingly price liking may be turned to as weapon 10 fight the evil
 What is here set down is not in- tended as a tirade against American employers. No charge is here made that prices are out of line with wages-as matter of fact, no prices that I know of are more out of line than are wages Tn the building industry at this moment.
 This recital may, however, bring home to some of us the inter-relation of prices and wages, the inter-dependence of us all, the necessity for realizing that we are all parts of one national economic strueture and that we cannot hope to 5 do exactly as we please without stop ping to consider how our astions will affect others. < The Dunkirl, mstbod |. ;,,.ofo,.o hI. 4. French method.
 But If the Dunkirk workers method is spurned, then one day we shall have the French method.