Rapid Reviews

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 72, 26 July 1912, Page 3

Rapid Reviews

"THINGS THAT MATTER."

THE WORKMAN WHO OBTAINS AN ADVANCE IN WAGES IS A BENEFACTOR OF HIS COUNTRY.

'Under the title, "Things that Matter," Mr. L. 0. C'hiozza Money has just published a striking series of essays. The wholo volume is interesting and provocative of thought. It deals with such ninvstioud as education a.nd insurance, cost of living, emigration, and wages and industry. In dealing with the latter subject, Mr. Money makes a. strong plea for higher wages. He says:---'•The general proposition is this, and 1 advance.it as a challenge to every thinking man, that the workman who obtains an advance in wages is a benet act or of his country and his kind.

"That tin's proposition has not yet been borne in upon the majority of those who write matter for public consumption i.s only too clear from a poru•.sal'Kif current comments- (1911-1912), upon. 'Unrest. in tho. Labor Market,' The most noticeable thing about these articles i.s that the chief desire of their authors appears to bo that things should lie settled..' How often one reads sentence* like this: — ' "'Wo are ?orry to say that things are. no nearer a settlement this morning.' " 'We are glad to say that ulie prospect of a settlement is a little brighter this morning.' '' 'We earnestly hope that a settlement will soon be arrived at.' " 'Wo hope that nothing will be done by either side to postpone a settlement.' "The. request or demand of workmen for a higher wage is rarely or neve l--treated on its merits as a matter in which, right and wrong is involved, and witli. which is bound up the progress of the nation as a whole, but as an exceedingly uncomfortable thing which needs to be 'settled' it matters not bow sell led, as long as settled. Yet, if tho great mass of working-people— almost the entire nation that is—do not continuously secure higher wages, the nation must cease to advance aetuallA' and relatively to other nations." RISE IN WAGES DOES NOT MEAN A CORRESPONDING RISE IN PRICES OF COMMODITIES. "Even if the whole of an increase m wages were immediately added by the employer to the aggregate price of his output, the price of his commodities would not rise in the same proportion as the wages. Wages form only one factor in price, and many of the other factors would not. vary. For example, the greater part of tho management and standing costs would remain exactly the same, and the profits, which are included in ultimate price, would, if calculated to remain the same, not add proportionally to the price of the entire output. Many materials would not rise at all, and many would not rise, in proportion. Therefore, as a mere arithmetical fact, it is not true that if wages were raised, say, 10 per cent., and the whole of the increase added to tho price of the output produced by the labor concerned, prices would rise 10 per cent."

THE SECRET IS EFFICIENCY IN OUTPUT. "Although wages are, of course, an element in price, it does not follow that, as wages rise, wages form an increasing clement in price. On the con.« trary, modern economists have discos erod that the royal road to efficiency of output, which is the same thing as cheapness of output, is to employ high-ly-paid h\nv upon the most expensive machinery and plant, erected in cost* l,y and hygienic factories High WJvgCB produoo efliok'iit workmen, and efficient workmen produce far more for high wages than inefficient workmen for low wages. Let mc give an extreme case. Lancashire cotton wages aro onormously higher than Japaneso cotton wages. Yet the high cotton wages of are cheaper than the low cotton wages of Japan, because tho Lancashire operative produces so muob more than the Japanese operative perunit of wages? 111-paid labor is dear labor; well-paid labor is cheap labor." HIGH WAGES LEAD TO EFFICIENCY. "The payment of high wages leada tho manufacturer to carry on his business efficiently, and therefore to produce cheaply. Low wages are a curso to the employer and a curse to the industry in which they aro paid. While men and women can be bought cheaply tho employer does not worry about efficiency. There is no doubt whatever that the success of trades unionism in Lancashire, the consequent raising of wages, and the consequent equal wages for men and women which is tho rulo of tho trade, have done moro than anything else to make the Lancashire trado as efficient as it is." HIGH WAGES STRENGTHEN EXPORT TRADE.

Discussing high wages from tho standpoint of industrial prosperity, Mr. Money asks several pertinent questions :—

"Question: Which European nation, next to lihe United Kingdom, has the largest export trade?

'Answer: Germany, the wages paid in which are, next to those of tho United Kingdom, tho highest paid in Europe."

Lot', us take this a little further. Which three great nations in the world have the highest rates of wages? Tho answer is: The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. These throe nations, which pay uhc highest wages, have also by far the largest export trades in the world. If tho payment of low wages really means the gain of competitive power"} then it would be the low-wage countries and not ihe high-wago countries which would bo at the head of commercial affairs.

But it is unnecessary to go abroad for proof of the strengthening of export trade by higher wages. The industries in which Britain chiefly shines, and the trades in which she exercises the greatest power in exporting, aro precisely those in which the rates of wages are highest.

*'ihe book is well worth careful perusal and its price is very moderate —■ o.s. ii"t. (MeUiuon and Co.). Every e-.sav is of interest.