Evening star., 1934-04-29
Way to Higher Wages

collectively. If all employers were
wise and just there would be no eco
nomic need for labor organization
The fine type Of employer who con-
siders and makes his employees part
ners in his enterprise may regard the
organization of his workers into q
union as an intolerable invasion of
his private rights. 1t Is the price he
must pay for the policies pursued by
a minority of his fellows.
That collective bargaining under
normal conditions can exert q pro-
found influence on the hours and
wages of the whole working class is
highly doubtful. In England union
workers able to dictate their own
terms live their lives on wages that
unorganized workers in America
would scorn. For labor as a whole
organization serves chiefly to obtain
a better working environment, greater
safety of the individual worker phys
ically and economically and more leg
islative protection. The influence OF
organized labor in closing the flood
gates of American immigration has
done more for American wage rates
than all the strikes in our history.
Monopoly Possible.
But it is easily possible for organ
ization in a special line of work to
exert very great influence on the
hours and wages of its own limited
membership. Under certain condi-
tions organization can obtain monop-
oily control of an industry and exact
hours and wages that give its men,
bers differential over other workers.
The net effect of such a situation is
to create an aristorcracy of labor
which receives uneconomic wages at
the expense of other workers and of
society as a whole. They cut into
capital accumulation, reduce the total
product and raise the cost of living.
They themselves do not escape the
operation of economic law, for in the
end they diminish the industry in
which they work and cut down their
own opportunities for employment.
They drive employers to desperate
efforts to find machines to displace
workers development which is highly
beneficial socially but somewhat I'M
pleasant for the workers. Uncon-
sciously, certain labor unions have
enormously promoted the introduction
of labor-saving machines.
This is, you say, rather flne-spun
economic reasoning. 1t may be cor
rect or it may not, you think, but
what Of it? Just this: The failure
of industrial leaders, labor leaders and
Government leaders to be guided by
these simple principles has been one
of the heaviest burdens that a de-
preston worn world has had to bear.
Let us apply some of these principles
to concrete realities.
British industry is pretty much in
the grip of labor organization. The
World War forced wages to unheard-
of levels. They were maintained by
imitation. national borrowings and
cruel taxation. The reduction of
these wage levels in the postwar de-
fation period and the later depreS-
sion period was essential to the main
tenance of British commerce. The
requisite reductions were stoutly re-
sisted by the labor organizations. AS
a consequence trade vanished, pro-
tective system injurious to labor was
established, civil war was threatened,
the gold standard was abandoned and
a large part of the population went
on a permanent dole. 1t is a ques-
ton whether this adventure in un-
economic wage levels has not con-
tributed to the decline of England as
world power.
Our Mad Pursuit"
Consider our own country's mad
pursuit of consumer power" Before
1929 the theory was that endless
spending meant endless demand,
which in turn meant endless increase
in wages, this again creating more
consumer power" This theory of
perpetual wage increases ended up
with the Nation spending more than
it could create and labor being paid
more than it could produce. Where
upon the whole bloated structure col
ldpSeU. LII 1870 IllAS WliOC1 P4CPoA ~
an article pointing out the inevitable
consequences of this false economic
analysis. 1t was returned by a lead
ing publication with the statement
that the thesis was interesting, but
not in accord with the views OF the
editors.
Consider the N r. A. 1t embraced
be cured by enlarged consumer
power"-this to be attained by giving
labor, at the pit of depression that
had destroyed profits. higher wages
than it could earn under the melan-
choly conditions of economic stagna-
ton. In the whole history of man.
kind consumer power" has been the
last thing that needed artificial slim
ulation. What this country has
needed for recovery is revival OF
production, and what the victims OF
depression have needed is work. A
certain way to discourage the en-
ployment of the unemployed is to
establish uneconomic wages for the
lucky ones that are at work. And
now, with storm OF criticism
showering upon the N. r. A. and an
economic cul-de-sac in front Of it,
with one &eath its chieftains shout,
For Gods sake, keep prices down."
and You must raise wages and re-
duce hours 10 per cent" 1t is a
perilous business to place the control
of the livelihoods of people in the
hands of new economics" that has
no fundamental economic under
standing.
There is a deep social significance
in this power of a single labor Or
ganization to establish above-norm
labor returns in a single industry
when it is impossible to establish such
returns for the whole mass of workers.
In the main, with a few notable
exceptions, labor organization in this
country has been confined to inde-
pendent craft unions, nationally Or
ganized in special highly skilled
trades. Once its power has been
established, the aim Of each organ
ization has been to promote the in
terests Of its own limited member
ship.
Naturally Militant
BY their very nature such organi-
cations have been militant. Without