The Wilmington morning star., 1945-11-02
BY ROGER w. BABSON

BABSON PARK, Miss, Nov. l
I have just returned from a con
ference on wages. Labor was re-
presented by a very smart lawyer;
and management was represent
ed by kindly employer.
ID Labor's lawyer stated that
his people had worked forty hours
q week before the War; that dur
ing thu War they had worked fifty
four hours a week and that Tor
these additional fourteen hours re-
ceived time-and-a-half pay. 1 n e
EMPLOYER acknowledged this; but
stated that the boys of the family
were then in the army and tne
family needed more income. NOW
these boys have returned and the
family income, even without th!s
overtime, will be as high as II
was before.
90 Labor's lawyer then com
blamed about the deductions when
are made from the pay envelope
namely, for Social Security, tne
purchase of bonds and the pay
ment of taxes. The employer ans
wered by saying that the deduc'
ton for Social Security was match
ed by a similar amount from MN
and that the total amount double
what was deducted from the en-
p1oyee) is set aside for a pension.
Therefore, it is really not a deduc'
ton. The same applies to bond pur,
chases. These bonds are as gooo
as money and can be cashed IN al
any time. AS to taxes, both the
LAWYER for labor and the employer
agreed that these would be ellml-
mated by the new tax bill gong
into effect in January, 1916.
80 Labor's lawyer talked about
the increased cost-of-living. This
was admitted by the employer; but
he presented government statistics
showing that living costs as
whole have not gone up more than
the base wage has risen without
giving any account for overtime.
It is true that wage workers are
buying certain luxuries today
which they did not buy before,
which luxuries are not tabulated
in the official cost-of-living figures.
After labor's lawyer got through
presenting his case the employer
stated: 1--WE would not object so
strongly to increased wages if we
could correspondingly increase the
price of our goods. To do one
without the other, however, is an
absolute impossiblity. We would be
obliged to shut down. He brought
out the following points: 5000.
Cd Not only have the base wages
mentioned above gone up Grre'
spective of overtime) but the cost
of all materials have, likewise,
gone up in an amount equal to. the
Little Steel Formula.
co Stockholders are getting no
more in dividends; yet they must
be given a corresponding increase
in order for them to provide addi'
tional capital which is very much
needed for reconversion work.
90 In answer to labor's COM
plant about the salaries of officers,
the employer stated that their in
crease has been less than the in
crease in labor's base wage; fur.
thermore, that if all officers work.
ed for nothing, it would provide an
increase of only from $40 per
cent in the wages Of all other en-
ployees.
l did not get the above discus
sion but when asked for my COM
ments, I called attention to the
following three facts:
Cd This country will have huge
foreign competition in the years
ahead, from which it was alb
solutely free during the War. Poll
ticians can talk about putting up
higher tariff walls, but this foreign
labor must be given work if we
are to have world peace.
co Foreign competition will