The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-01-29
Truths Pondered While
Riding At Anchor
MIR. MODESTUS
. MOSTLY WAGES
. MADE ADEQUATE
. TURN TO CRIME
. FREEDOM FROM FEAR


Distribution
Or national output of production
Turned out to be the bug-a-b boo OF
our national economic system
Before, and then during, the Great
Depression
Distribution is accomplished by
spread of purchasing power
Purchasing power is expressed ir
terms of money
AS in dividends, profits, percentages
and wages
Mostly, wages.
X X X
Because the wage factor was not
large enough
TO absorb increasing bulk of goods
flowing from mass production
Factories had to shut down; mar.
kets dried up; even dividends fell
Receivers of dividends cannot IRE.
peat: cannoD absorb surplus commodi.
ties
Which our magnificent economic ap-
paratus can normally produce
Profits and percentages cannot equal
the surplus to be disposed Of
So, wages must be kept at a point
which will balance productive capac-
ity-
This is just as true during war
time, as at any other time
creased, labor's wage must be made
adequate
TO accomplish the turnover in COM
mOditieS-
Or else
Just as in the previous World War
Americas mechaniSmS and Ameri-
can labor
Are now finding new and marvel
louSly efficient methods
For making all kinds of products
Devices and methods which employ
ers had not employed
Because they would involve enOr-
nous discards of equipment
methods are now being released
For war production, to meet war
emergency
X X X
All this means more goods produced
per man-hOur-
These new processes will carry over
into after-thewar production
But if there is not an adjustment
of purchasing power
TO equal the swelling stream of com
modities flowing from industry
There will be another destructive
flood
At first, profits will be enormous,
with surplus dividends piling up
Immediately after, surplus goods
will pile up, also
Surplus capital: surplus commodi-
ties surplus everything
Including surplus labor again: sur
plus humanity
Which spells chronic unemployment.
x X X
This is not just "A wage problem
Based upon demands of organized
labor
For wages are the mudsills of the
whole structure
Not only in production, in the max
ing of goods
But equally vital in maintaining bal
anced flow of essentials
Unless life of the people is maintain
ed at IA level
Corresponding to capacity for pro
ductiOn, of the nation
The living link, which gives reason
for existence of the whole
Is broken, falls out of place; power
house begins to shut down
Human life reverts toward previous,
lower, simpler phases
People, shut off from facilities of
civilized life
Begin to hunt for other means of
living
Grope back to the forests and
jungleS-
Or turn to crime
AS happened in 1882.
increased output per man-hOur-
Unless used as Il lever to lift general
level of life
Becomes Il Strangling moose, destroy
ing the very machines which produce
it
That moose can be cut only by dis
tribution according to production
Refusal to make hn adjustment OF
wages in this emergency
Will be equivalent to cutting life
line of democracy
And that is what Americans are
willing now to fight for
Freedom: from fear from hunger,
from paralysis of labor
Can never be attained by Slicing
down labor'S purchasing power
Which now is expressed in wages.