The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-29
TUESDAY. JANUARY 20. 1885.
MR.. WOLL'S LETTER
pPs-HoWARD NEWSPAPER


llshed on Page l Of this edition, has asked
our views on the high wage principle as it
relates to the question Of prosperity's return
He says that the thing which most dis
tinguishes the American economic system from
all others is that principle; that it has been
expounded not only by NRA in a Democratic
Administration, but by previous Administra-
lions of different political faith mentioning
especially Mr.. Hoover. Mr.. Vol expresses
alarm because today certain leading indus
trialists are urging reduction Of labor cost as
the way out OF the depression.
He says:
The abandonment of the high wage prin-
ciple would not only check the tendency to-
ward recovery. but might lead us into new
collapse"
I'VE believe that future prosperity can be
w achieved only by increased consumption,
by establishing balance between our capacity
to consume and our ability to produce Our
nation has a combination of raw materials on
the one hand and productive capacity on the
other such as the world never before has seen.
Technocracy dhe inventor, the machine
which will do the work of hundred mem
should be an economic blessing and not the
cause of the curse of unemployment that it
has proved. Make it possible for our people
to buy what they would buy if they had the
money, and the chicken-in-every-pot dream
could come true, easily and poverty could be
abolished from the land
But the combination hasn't been found. So,
IL
we have our vast unemployment. the dole,
mounting taxes on top of an increased inca
pacity to pay, and financial grief in all direc-
tons, public and private
Wages constitute the chief medium for the
distribution of buying power. So, On the face
of it, the higher the wages, the more quickly
We arrive at that capacity to consume-that
happy balance of buying and producing But
apparently only on the face Of it. For the
high wage principle of which Mr.. Woll speaks
is by no means in actual effect, when total
wages, as distinct from wage scales, are con-
sidered.
The wage scale of the bricklayer in New
York City, for example. is 1920 a day. That
looks pretty good. But when it is discovered
that the average yearly employment of all
brcklayers is, say, three months-and we be-
licve that figure high under conditions pre-
vailing today-we have high wage principle
all right but no high wage return. For the
annual buying power of the bricklayer be-
comes less than $1,000.
Even in that year of high prosperity 1929,
the average manufacturing wage was $1,000.
In 1888, the average was about $1,000 in the
highly skilled automobile industry; about 5000
IN steel and rolling mills; in cigarets, s622; in
mems shirts and work clothing, $500.
1T is not very useful to pay man $40
day if he is only employed IS days in the year."
So it seems to us that as tn now stand,
the high wage principle, in t mass buy
ing power. is pretty much OF myth-and that
leaders of labor like Mr.. Vol should concen-
trate their primary attention ON how the an
nual wage of the various crafts can be in
creased, rather than making their first
consideration the establishment of a scale
which in times like these works out merely to
a deluSion.
We would even urge for the consideration
of that most basic of all industries, the build
ing trades, the question of whether the scale
which, after all, nets such a small return to
the individual if reduced temporarily, might
not stimulate building and thereby broaden
the scope of employment. And simultaneously
We would urge upon the material makers the
same question of price reduction, to encourage
more construction.
Should such a scale reduction be agreed to,
labor should be protected by a contractual
agreement that the scale would be resumed
after the volume of construction is increased
to the point of a general revival of business,
which most certainly would accompany re-
vival in the basic industry of building.
Certain it is that # you build today and
pay the labor and material prices which the
very few who are building have to pay, the
cost of the structure, generally speaking. is so
great that the rent payer. who is the "ulti-
mate consumer" just simply won't meet the
bill.
AS advocates for over so years of the high
wage principle. such a suggestion from the
Scripps-H Howard Newspapers may appear in
consistent But We do not believe so. Nor do
we wish to appear dogmatic in our opinion as
to its worth. We merely propose open-minded
consideration by our friends in organized Ia
Dor. as one of the possible ways of getting
things going, of getting purchasing power
stimulated in terms of total wages rather
than merely in terms of wage scales which
labor is not actually Tow getting.
This nation is still on dead center in this
all important matter If private employment.
Open-minded consideration of any policy by
which the stalemate could be broken is in our
opinion called for.
Then. as things do pick up, may both the
scale and the annual wage rise and rise TO the
roint where the American consumer can
match With his buying power everything that