The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-08-03

BOake Carter
Living Costs Rise
Labor and High Prices
White House Poppycock

TWO news items tell signifi.
- cant story:
General Motors declares it lost
$22,000,000 in the second quar-
ter of 1887 and blamed the long
string of outlaw strikes which
tied up production for the loss.
The company says that increased
costs now makes it imperative to
consider boosting the prices OF
cars to the general public.
The second item:
Middle.class t a miles from
New York to Seattle are cancel
ing BODYBUILDING plans, because
increased material and labor
costs have jumped the cost Of an
average $4,000 house as much as
Is per cent. This fact was found
out after a survey OF SO major
cities of the nation.
Surely here are two incidents
that cast their shadows before
them. 1t is inevitable that the
public is going to pay the bill Of
the labor upheaval Of the last
IL months.
There is in these incidents a
note of grim irony. For as the
costs of both material things
and food increase, labor will find
that the cash gains it has made
in the pay envelope will be Off
set by the gains in retail prices.
Therefore, labor will find itself
tomorrow in the same relative
position from which it started
yesterday.
All this involves what we are
pleased to call the high stand
ard of living" in America, a
standard which the rest of the
world is supposed to envy and
admire.
American mass production and
the American system Of finan-
cling almost everything on de.
ferred payments are the two
main props of this high standard
Of living.
Because of them, the American
workman can buy himself an au.
tomobile, a radio, a refrigerator
and The thousand and one other
gadgets for which home life in
America is famous across the
world.
This has led, believe, to the
verage American becoming
spoiled. He has been encour-
aged to live a life where these
material luxuries are taken for
granted. He has ceased to ap-
preciate how much better his lot
is over the workingman in the
rest of the world. 1t has devel-
oped in America a situation
mighty close to a false standard
Of living.
An unreaSoning series Of de-
mands for higher wages and
shorter hours, all to be accom-
plished with a rush and bang,
simply means that industry, I'm.
able to adjust itself to finding
ways to absorb these costs and
still keep the costs Of production
and the prices Of goods down,
grabs the nearest nfebelt-a gen.
eral rise in prices to the public.
AS soon as this occurs the or.
ganizers of labor boot and howl
and demand still further wage
increases and still shorter hours.
Industry counters with still
higher prices-and then the
vicious. horrifying circle Of in.
flation is well on its way.
It seems to me that there Is
a wide open chance for a smart,
so far unknown labor leader In
America to rise and sell this very
fundamental fact Of go easy"
to every workingman in the
United States.
1t is utterly impossible to get
away from the fact that in.
dustry depends upon labor, and
labor depends upon industry.
But when one group is led by
opportunists and radicals who
have no thought Of anything but
filling their own pockets to con-
slider the other group as an i'm.
placable enemy. who must be
beaten down and destroyed
then labor Is writing its own
death sentence.
If labor wants to maintain a
higN standard Of living it's got
To annreciata its own rAsnnnSi.