The Press. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1903. WAGES AND PRICES.

Press, Issue 11564, 22 April 1903, Page 6

The Press. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1903. WAGES AND PRICES.

The rise in the price of butcher's meat as recorded in another column is only typical of what has taken place in regard to the cost of living generally. House rent, bread, flour, and many articles of clothing, as well as of food, have been increased in price during the or three years." It is true that wages have in many cases been increased, through tho medium of the Arbitration Court, during tho same time, hut with the all-round increase in the cost of living, working men are beginning seriously to ask themselves whether they are any better off than they were under the old regime. It will be observed that the master butchers who have been interviewed mainly attribute the rise in prices to thefact that they have had to pay increased wages to their employees owing to the awards in the Arbitration Court. The same reason is given for the rise in the price of bread and other commodities. We cannot say that the master butchers have succeeded in showing that the increase in wages has been such as to justify the whole of the increase in the price of meat. There is little doubt in our own mind that the fashion having been set of forming a "combine" for the purpose of raising the price of labour, it has beam followed for the purpose of raising the price of commodities, sometimes to an extent (not altogether justified by the rise in wages. In cases where labour forms a considerable proportion of the cost, tbe increase in wages is quite sufficient to account for the increase in the price charged for the commodity. On more than one occasion when the question has been raised as to how the increased wages asked for were to be provided, the unionist representatives have suggested the consumer should be asked to pay a higher price. There is no doubt this ha; been the course usually followed. And we do not see how those who have virtually entered into a "combine" to raise tbe price of labour can justly complain when the employers combine to raise the price of commodities so as to recoup themselves for the increased cost of production. It unfortunately happens, however, from the workers' point of view, that the burden of the increased prices has to a very large extent fallen on those who, in the first instance, set the bail rolling, namely, tho wage-earners. If they lvad stopped to consider the nutter, they would have seen that this most be so. The reason is pointed out very clearly in an admirable work on social economics entitled "The Strength of the People," by Helen Bosanquet, recently published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. The writer shows that the majority of wageearners are engaged in producing for tlie benefit of other wage-earners. An allround rise of wages is reflected in an allround rise of prices, and this has to be borne by the wage-earoexß. If, to take a concrete example, the working butchers alone had received an increase of wages, no doubt they would have reaped considerable benefit. The price of meat would have been raised, but this would have been borne by the community as a whole, and especially by the working classes, in whose resources tbe butcher's bill, under

ordinary circumstances, makes a very big 'lH hole. But cjupentetw, painters, plumbere, f| bakers, tailors, idioemakcrs—in fact, neorlv '&• every class of industrial worker in the com- % munky—have been to tho Arbitration Cuutt, .1 j| and sect ot thorn hays got t% &n«tst\*£- \p pay. It costs 10 or 40 p*x'esntrrasts I*7 % build a house now than it did *. f*w yean *f ago, and consequently house rent ha* had .* to be raised. The working butcher has to $ par more rent, more for food, clothing, and, we believe, also for fuel, than he did, and we doubt if he is any better off than v he was before he got his increase of pay. The burden of the increased prices is '•'"% bound to fall more heavily on the wage- V earners, because neartly the whole of their ~searnings have to he spent in the necessaries t of life most affected by tlie increase. To -i a man of means an increase in the butchers \ and baker's bill is s mens flea-bite. A tgreat deal of his clothing being imported -/' will not b*i affected by the rise in wage*. - J ' It is on the comparatively cheap, colonialiv- '. made article used by the wage-earner tli«t ".' the increased cost of production chiefly falls. J All this goes to show that although it is } possible by artificial means to increase the '! > nominal rate of "wages, it is not by any *'■ means easy to increase the real rate, be- c Cause the ostensible rise in wages will be *• swallowed up, if not more titan swallowed /'.., up, by tixtt diminished upending power of those wages, owing to the increased price of the necessaries of life. There is only one way of .' making the increase of wages a real -one,: -, namely, by increasing the production to • -_ corresponding degree. This may be done -"' in one of two ways, namely, either by the employer using improved machinery, which ' will enable him to do tho same work wiib. ,•<- ---fewer hands, or by his dismissing the lease /■ capable workmen, and keeping on only tlie' h, best hoods, who are fully worth the in- -v creased wages. In either cose it is obvious -| that there will be hardship to some of the ? f workers, at any rate for a time.