The Omaha guide., 1945-10-20
Released by Calvin's News Service

On the treadmil Of capitalism workers have to
run hard to stay where they are. Take the New
York elveator operators. AS the cost of living rose,
they tried to bridge the widening gap by working
longer hours. Opeators in skyscrapers and lofts
have been getting $30.15 (minus deductions) for a
46-hour week. Now the employers and the regional
War Labor Board want them to take a $210 cut
and work ~ hours a week. The elevator operators
say they can just scrabble along on $50 and they
can't skip meals just because they work 4 hours less
(They demand $50 for a 40 hour week. Their
dramatic strike was called. therefore, not to i'm
prove their living standards, but to prevent them
from falling. CThey have now gone back to work,
at an increase in salary and shorter hours).
What is true Of the elevator operators in Gotham
is also true of the lOggerS in the Douglas Fir COun-
try In the Northwest Pacific, and the oil workers in
Texas, and the industrial workers in Detroit. The
strike struggles In which these workers are now
engaged and in which they are showing dauntless
courage, solidarity and capacity for sacrifice are
really rear-guard actions against a decline in living
standards, not frontal attacks for improvements.
This is a fact, a SOLDERING fact, and [ think work
eS should ponder it SOberly. Throughout the war
the WOuld-be postwar planners talked endleSsly a
bout raising living standards so W. could use the
output of our expanded plants. The former At
torney General, Francis Biddle, said in 1912 that it
was 'one of our major p~roblems-~--tO learn to use,
to live in, the immense productive machine which
for war purposes we have built up" And last
June 80 the present Secretary Of Treasury, Fred Nj.
Vinson. told Congress-
'FThe American people are in the pleasant predic-
ament of having to learn to live 500 better than
they have ever lived before. Only the defeatist can
scott at this inescapable fact that we must build our
economy on that basis"
Now instead of raising living standards, employ
ers, by cutting wages, are causing them to fall. in
fact, some of the employers who detained the loud
est over the need to raise living standards are the
most determined to cut the wages Of their own work
erS.
Ones first impulse is to blame employers, and ac-
cuse them of being greedy and shOrtsighted. But
if we follow this impulse, we lose sight of the fact
that employers are under the compulsion Of extern
al, coercive economic laws inherent in the capitalist
system. Some employers, perhaps a majority, are
greedy and shortsighted- There are others, how
ever, who would like to be more generous In their
treatment of labor. The point is that both the
greedy and the wOuld-be generous employers are
subject to the same economic laws. The worker
whose wages are slashed while living costs are ris-
ing can get small comfort from the fact that his en-
plOyer may have done the slashing reluctantly.
The real malefactor is not the individual capital
lt, but the capitalist system. The capitalist Sys-
TEN is prevented from bringing the promise of a
bundance for all to fulfillment because of inherent
economic laws. And we can no more repeal these
laws without repeating" the capitalist system
than we can repeal the law of gravitation. In con-
fiImation of this Indictment, | point to the follow
ing pertinent facts:
[. To enjoy higher living standards under capt.
alism, wages must rise: They must not fall. They
must not even remain where they are. They must
RISE.
2. Labor power is like any other commodity.
When the supply of workers exceeds the demand
especially when it exceeds the demand by many
millions-its price (wages) falls.
3. When rehabilitation Ct war-wOrkers and ser
vicemen is complete, the supply Of labor will great
ly exceed the demand.
4. What this adds up to is not the higher living
standards our postwar planners forecast in such
glowing terms, but unemployment, depressed wag-
es and depressed standards. Right now workers in
scores of industries are resisting these effects Of
capitalism. Some may be partly or wholly success
full in blocking wage cuts. But even if they are
successful, the fact remains that they are still
fighting effects, not the cause. Yet they are fight
ing. To one who believes a Socialist Industrial
Democracy is the only solution to the problems Of
unemployment, poverty, racism and war, this rebel
lious spirit is heartening. Were the same energy
courage and devotion the American workers now
display in resisting entertainments on their living
standards to be used in a frontal attack on the
cause of their misery and insecurity, we could soon
enjoy a world of happiness, brotherhood, peace and
boundless abundance.