The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-28
By II. NJ. WICKS.

HINDER the guise of an attack upon
y the DAILY WORKER for prop
erly depicting in a cartoon the fright
full effect of piece work upon the
workers in the garment workers
unions, Mr. J. B. S. Hardman, known
for years as Salutsky, contributes to
the gayety of the labor movement by
airing his views upon the ''real basis
of wages" The cartoon that evoked
the diatribe of Hardman showed a
half-staved worker held in the grip
of bestial foreman who forced him
to work at the most frightful speed
The title of the cartoon, drawn by
VIM. Chopper, was "The Right Wing
Ideal-Beckerman Advocates Piece
Work"
Since Beckerman, an official of the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers, is
guilty of advocating piece work for
the slaves in the mems garment in
dustry, it became the duty of Hard
man, as editorial scullion for Beck
erman, to write an apology for this
latest example of class collaboration
between the Amalgamated machine
and the employers.
We can pass over without comment
his low billingsgate and cheap sneers
hurled at the DAILY WORKER, the
Workers Communist Party and the
Trade Union Educational League and
proceed to an analysis of Mr.. Hard
mans economies.
fundamentally" affirms Hard
man in his editorial in the advance"
of July %, 1927, at is the quality
and quantity of work, the output,
that determines the pay for work"
For half a column the apologist for
Beckerman argues that earnings of
people in an industry are related to
the kind of work and the quantity
of work that they turn out"
According to the advance" edi-
torial writer, time-wages (week-
wages) are likely to prevail in in
dustries producing high-priced goods,
while piece-work is more likely in
branches engaged in cheap, mass pro-
duction. Again he reverts to his
main theme and repeats that: "The
question of wages is a question of
earnings. 1t does not matter what
ones nominal wages are, it is the
earnings that count"
MO capitalist apologist could put up
~ more contemplate and servile
argument for slave drivers. Hard
man signs the same song that is sung
by all defenders of intensive exploita-
ton of labor from Professor Nixon
Carver to Matt Woll. The ridiculous
assertion that production must in
crease before wages increase is tant-
amount to arguing that there is such
a small margin of profit for the capt.
talist eXploiter of labor that he can
not, under present conditions, pay
higher wages than he does. How
anyone protesting to speak for labor
can put forth such suggestion, in
view of the well-established fact that
industrial workers in the United
States, on an average produce in
from two and a half to three hours
values equivalent to what they re-
ceive in wages, and that the balance
of the day they expend in unpaid
labor for the employers is beyond
comprehension, except on plain
grounds of perfidy.
Only an utter ignoramus or
knave who indulges- in vicious apol-
ogies for the master class would
claim that wages rise or fall in pro-
portion as productivity varies. This
assumption is not true on either a
national scale, or on an industrial
scale, say nothing of applying it, as
does Hardman, to a certain section
of given industry THAT is to say,
the New York mems garment indus
try or that part of it wherein the
Beckerman machine plays a role).
WAGES are determined not by the
p" productivity of labor but by the
value of labor-power-the ocially
necessary labor time required to pro-
duce the food, clothing and shelter
necessary to enable the worker to
reproduce his labor-power-to live
in a given social environment and
raise family. The productivity of
the industry in which he works may
increase or decrease without alter
ing in the slightest his wages.
The general movements of wages,
according to Karl Marx are "EX-
CLUSIVELY REGULATED BY THE
EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION
OF THE INDUSTRIAL RESERVE
ARMY, AND THESE AGAIN COR
RESPOND TO THE PERIODIC
CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRIAL
CYCLE" Capital, Vol. 1, chapter
XIV, page 699-Charles H. Kerr
edition.
Now let US see, starting from this
premises, where the disgusting soph-
istry and spurious erudition of this
creature, Hartman, the miserable
apologist for Beckerman, leads us.
In MANY industries niece-wa0as ara