Evening star., 1946-07-15
Strikes by Consumer
Held Defeating Idea
Action Called Surest Way
To Cause Unemployment
BY David Lawrence

Ny 1>"tf" A>""y
No better evidence of the complete
misunderstanding which large sec
ton Of the public has today about price
control can be furnished than in the
misguided and mischievous attempts to
start consumer strikes"
There Is indeed no quicker way to
bring about unemployment and pro-
duce a depression than to clog the
machinery of retail trade in the United
States by artificial demonstrations 1t
seems hardly credible that sensible
Americans will pay attention to the
obvious attempts which are being made
to sabotage the economic system.
None of these groups was in evidence
with their consumer strikes" when
powerful labor unions were demanding
the same wages as in wartime, despite
the necessary cancellation of billions
of dollars OF Government contracts
which had caused a curtailment of
volume,
No Objections to Coal Bill.
The so-called consumer" groups
didn't object when the President le-
Gently added many hundreds of millions
of dollars a year to the Nations coal
bill in the form of increased wages or
nearly billion dollars a year in the
cost of shipping all kinds of goods be-
cause of the rise in freight rates re-
sulting from increased wage rates.
The mooted oPA itself has a record
of increasing thousands of prices since
last February to cover increases due to
labor costs Little is known about this
by the public. There is no way of tell
ing how many times these labor charges
| have had to be added to costs, all the
way from producer to consumer. Yet
when the retailer who buys the finished
product puts it on his shelves, he has
no way of conducting an inquisition
as to how the prices got to the levels
with which he Is confronted. He has
to take the prices handed him in the
long chain of sales from the producer
and professor to the wholesaler and
jobber.
The public cannot express its opin-
! ion persuasively on these matters by
organized demonstrations when the
sOooS llIIdlIy a4C Ol4C4Co 1OI SdlCs DC-
| cause too many people need the articles
| In question and demand is greater than
| supply.
| Eventually, of course. there will be
| a slackening of demand when wages
| do not buy enough. But the answer Is
not to increase wages again, for this
merely results in a vicious circle The
answer lies in finding some way to In
crease output per man and making
existing machinery more productive
than before. The answer also lies in
/ chronological improvements and eff
/ cheney.
Short Work Week Fallacy
Certainly no good will come from the
many demands now being made by
labor unions to shorten the work week
to IS or 80 hours so that more money
can be collected for the hours that then
become overtime. Wage costs have been
pyramiding at an alarming rate by this
scheme. The workers of America are
being victimized by their own leaders,
who in order to retain their Offices
and their power, have misled the rank
and file into believing they would be
. benefited by increasing wages.
/ As consequence, while money wages
| have risen, real wages"-which is what
/ the dollar will buy-have come down.
l. They will go down still further For
IN all infations, it is the worker who
IS penalized In the present imitation.
the labor union leaders who forced
wages up after VJ-dav before produc-
tion could get into full swing are re-
sponsible for the crisis. They will have
to bear the responsibility for the next
depression. just as the speculative bank
ers did in 1929. II is the labor leader
who will become unpopular, and a Ma
tionwide demand will come for the re-
suiction of labor union monopolies
The present imitation will not end
{ soon. irrespective Of what Congress does
about it. The situation will grow worse
throughout the summer, and this is be-
cause labor union leadership has COM
pletelv misunderstood the economics
that become necessary when fighting
imitation. Not only must prices be held
down by manufacturers and distributors,
but the producers of raw materials and
the makers of finished products must
keep their wage costs down. II labor
union demands know no limit. inla-
ton Is inevitable. One powerful labor
group, for instance. has recently de-
manded a 100 per cent increase in
wages In two major cities-Chicaso
and Washington
But consumers pay little attention to
these extremes. If demonstrations are
to be held, they ought to be timed to
apply restraints on those labor unions
which are forcing wages up higher and
higher and which have the monopolr
power to enforce their demands by an
! unlimited right to strike.