Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1926-10-22


leaps and bounds. The year 1919 was
a whale of big one in industrial cir
cles-Europe lay wrecked by the war
while in this country the impetus war
had given to business and industry
was still being felt and many plants
were still filling war contracts. But
the year 1919 was but piker year
compared with what was to follow. By
1924 our production figures in the
charts maintained by the Department
of Commerce had climbed 81 per cent
over 1919, and last year they climb
ed 80 per cent.
This unprecedented swell of nation
al wealth has taken place so natur-
ally and been managed so efficient
ly that the figures come as surprise
to most of US, who have known that
times were prosperous, but had not
dreamed of the good fortune that was
Detailing this country. And, alas,
there is a reason for our individual
ignorance-poverty is still with US,
and unemployment.
The tremendous advance in national
wealth has been due to efficiency of
management, native inventive genius,
natural resources and the high char
acter of American labor. Super-ma-
chinery under American management
has been developing into the most
gigantic phenomena the world ever
saw. Last year we utilized twenty
seven times as much electrical energy
as in 1900 and so per cent more than
in 1920. The mechanical energy of
America is estimated to be equal to
the labor of three billions of slaves,
Or thirty slaves for every man, woman
and child of the nation.
All this wealth is ours and yet we
have poverty and unemployment.
What is wrong? The radical leaps
forward with his communistic pan
acea. Nonsense. Whatever may be
the faults of our capitalistic, competi-
tive system, it is this same system
that has placed America in its pres
ent position as the greatest power in
the world. Labor-saving devices,
water-power achievements, all indus
trial developments have resulted from
the competitive system, and the eff
cheney of management has played
large part in that result. However,
we do not need to blind ourselves to
inequalities and expressions just be-
cause management has performed ad
mirably. The good fortune should be
passed around.
And that is what the 1925 conven-
ton of the American Federation of
Labor had in mind when it declared
that wages should be based upon the
increasing productive power of the
individual and that hours of labor
should be continuously reduced, as
productive powers increase, in order
that work may be found for all hands.
President Lynch of the Typographical
union was the author of the "hours of
labor" amendment to the wage dec
aration, which is being recognized
more and more as a vital and funda-
mental part of labor's new wage
policy.
Secretary of Commerce Hoover es-
Inmates, on the bassi of sound figures,
that in the last twenty-five years in
dustrial employees have increased only
65 per cent while the product has in
creased ITO per cent, that is that the
workman today is turning out five ar
ticles where his predecessor turned
out three. That shows clearly enough
that the laborer is still long ways
from realizing the reward due his in
creased productivity. His wages in
dollars have been approximately
doubled, while the purchasing power
Of his wages has rsien very little
the dollar today is worth little moro
than half it's value of twelve years
ago. That leaves the worker, with
his increased wages, little better off
than he was before, even while his
country has been gathering the riches
of the world and developing power to
produce more real wealth Gall real
wealth is goods, not money! than the
world can use.
Mark this we'll: The wealth a ma
ton produces benefits that nation
only if it comes into use generally
within that country. The few are
benefited by increased exports, but
increased exports injure the average
citizen in two ways: first, because
goods that is shipped out of the
country can never be consumed by
him, and, second, because the money
that comes into the country in pay
ment for these exports increases the
country's stock of money and there
fore depreciates the buying power of
his income. The ideal situation, from
national point of view, is fair bal
ance between exports and imports so
that business need not be disturbed
by either an influx or heavy outgo of
1t is easily possible for America to !
continue developing her tremendous
while poverty and hard
ship for the worker continue unabat-
ed. In that case the few will be the