Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1947-08-15
Upword Spiral


Once again, the nations economy is
spiraling upward in price increases which
are out of line with the wage increases
which have been granted to the nations
workers.
DESPITE the pleas of the President and
the protests of union leadership, prices on
practically all commodities have been In
creased, or are in process of being raised
as the real wages of the workers actually
are diminishing.
We cannot measure wages merely IN
terms Of dollars and cents, but only in
terms of what wages will purchase.
Nor do we believe that increased pro-
duction is the answer for keeping down
prices. Based upon figures released by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, production is
at higher peak now than it attained
prior to the 1929 Wall Street market
breakdown which was the signal for the
last depression to begin. To increase the
productivity of the workers 1--WE are not
basically opposed to this) without a cor
responding increase in their ability to alb
sorb the increased commodities is to hasten
the time when layoffS, unemployment
and want become the order of the day.
High prices and relatively low wages
are completely unsound when coupled
with high productivity.
Despite this, American industry has
jumped the prices of its finished products
A.. sV1ar
given, at the same time urging the work
ers to step up their production on the
grounds that lower prices can only come
about by increased output which will re-
suit in lowering of Unit costs.
In some industries, because of their
competitive position, ii no doubt is neces-
sary to absorb increased wages by higher
production. On the other hand, some OF
the larger industrial concerns are reaping
newer and greater harvest of profits be-
cause of improved chronological methods
which can more than absorb the wage in
creases given their employees
Wages and prices, production and con-
sumption, profits and competition are in
tricate subjects which cannot be resolved
into a simple formula. The devotion which
the industrialists and businessmen of the
nation claim for free enterprise is scarcely
less than that claimed by many union
leaders, with this important difference,
that it frequently is less sincere. AT the
same time that labor is seeking to COM
promise wages in order to maintain the
less efficient and weaker industrial firms
in business, big business is taking advan-
tage of its chronological and financial ad-
vantage to force the smaller competitors
out of business and create a larger monop-
oily with a more absolute control over pro-
duction and prices.
Labor in paying tribute to free enter
prise and seeking to foster and preserve it,
is conducting an uphill and almost impOs-
sible fight against monOpolistic enterprise
which uses every means at its command,
including wages and rates of production,
TO put the squeeze on small competitors.
Eventually, the contradictions and in
herent evils in our economic system come
home to roOst bringing with them recess
sion and depression in which labor, as
part of the production system, finds itself
suffering along with the other weaker
links of the economic chain.
And this latter point is the thing to
which we are Fastening with the speed
OF the supersonic age in which we live.
There is no longer any question about if
there will be a next depression. The ques-
ton is-how long will ii be? The elements
are all present to produce it. Those who
could prevent it are unwilling to do so,
while those who seek to prevent it are
almost pOwerless to stay the inevitable.