HIGH WAGES AND PROSPERITY.

Putaruru Press, Volume V, Issue 177, 24 March 1927, Page 4

HIGH WAGES AND PROSPERITY.

WORLD wonder has been stirred by the remarkable run of prosperity the United States of America have enjoyed for many years, but the Americans themselves are just now woiidering whether the goFd~'Umes~al*e going to last. There is no such class

as a “ submerged tenth ” in America; in fact, there never was, at least not to the extent to which the terms have been applicable in Great Britain. The Americans of all classes have enough for their needs and a good deal left over for luxury and sheer waste. They have their labour troubles, it is true, but even allowing for these it can yet be asserted that no such great body of. wage-earners ever before in the history of the world had such high spending power. There are two principal causes for the high degree of material comfort enjoyed by the American workman, one being the high wages ruling and the other the instalment payment system. Wages of engineers, mechanics, foundrymen, reach £lO, £l2 and up to £ls a week, and builders 6s an hour, printing workers from £2 to £3 a day. The reader must not assume that because such wages aie paid the American employer is more generous than his fellows in other parts of the world : it is simply that the American workmen have established .their claim to a share of the profits of industry, and that they increase production to the uttermost in order to earn those profits. The employers, especially the pioneer of high wages, Henry Ford, know full well that high wages increase the spending- power of the people. Ford employees are great purchasers of Ford cars. Unlike the great amassings of wealth throughout history, America is not building hers up by slave labour. Ford’s method was to offer higher money than others were willing to give, and thus to draw to him the best men in the motor industry. The method paid, and ultimately spread until all were getting high wages and giving high production.

But there is no absolute equilibrium in industry : there is always the discrepancy between supply and demand, and it is the adjusting of one to the other, the increasing of one or the stimulation of the other, that constitutes the problem the master directing minds are always concentrating' upon. Given every inducement to do their best, the American workmen, under the efficient methods laid down, soon caused production to outstrip consumption, and then there naturally followed a process of persuasion of people to buy more goods than they had ever bought before, the process going by the general term of “ consumptionism.” By far the most powerful weapon in the new campaign is the selling of goods and services on the time-payment or instalment plan. Anyone having a good character- and a regular job can g'et anything—a fur coat, an engagement ring, a washing machine, a motor car, a piano, and what-not—-for a small deposit, and usually the balance by ten monthly instalments, called the “ ten-pay plan.” Up went consumption, and leaping after it production also soared.

The plan, it must be admitted, paid, and still pays, but its stability depends upon the continuance of good wages, the profitable running of small businesses, and the maintenance of earnings of all kinds. The possible fly in the ointment is the uncertainty as to whether all these sources of income are going to keep up to their present level. Some people think that a decline has already set in. For example, it is stated that whereas the big Ford factory at Detroit used to turn out 700 cars a day it now bu-.lds only 400, which deduction may possibly be the real reason of Ford’s adoption of the five-day week ! Likewise, the building of houses and hotels seems to have caught up with the demand. Obviously, if these two great industries experience a slack-ening-off in trade every other industry will “feel the draught,” and before long, too. The next step will be the taking back of myriads of articles being bought on the time-payment system, and these second-hand goods will become a drug on the market and will inevitably choke off the demand for new goods ; then unemployment must follow, and then what? We shall then see whether the American employers will keep wages up, and forego dividends, until prosperous times come again. With their reserves they may tide over, but this remains to be seen. It will be interesting and instructive in the highest degree to the Americans themselves and to the rest of the world to watch the standard of wages, to note whether the employers really have permanent faith in that gospel, and whether high wages and prosperity s.r-' necessarily inseparably inter'.vo ven.

The position of foreman to the Tolcoroa Rabbit Board, which was advertised solely in the Putaruru Press, resulted in nine applications being received, one being from Portland, Whangarei. A commencement was made last week with the new Presbyterian Church Hall at Putaruru in Overdale road, and good progress is being made by the contractor with the building, which is of wood. Owing to there being no quorum the meeting of the Putaruru Bowling, Croquet and Tennis Club called for last Friday lapsed. Seven members rolled up, but though a wait of an hour was made the additional member necessary to proceed with business could not be secured. “ Am I drunk now ? ” bawled a defendant in a motor collision case heard at the Matamata S.M. Court on Friday. The question, hurled at Constable Heeps, drew the retort : “Not with liquor, but you may be drunk with stupidity.” The magistrate warned the defendant not to shout while in the witness box. A very successful dance was held ■ y the Roman Catholic Church in the Putaruru Hall on St. Patrick’s night. There was a large attendance, and a splendid programme of music was supplied by the Arapuni Orchestra. Mr. Reg. Kay acted as M.C., and the dance resulted in a considerable profit for church funds. “ Whatever happens to our company, as long as we hold the coal mine we will never be bothered by any creditors who come along. That one thing alone will cover the whole of the ground of our finances.”—Mr. J. Clark, ex-director of the New Zea- ( land ’ Co-operative Dairy Company, speaking at a social at Tauhei on Friday night. Ladies do not always hold the good opinions of the virtues of alcohol that are usually supposed to be held by mere males. A lady witness in a motor collision case before the Matamata S.M. Court said she had become unconscious, and that the smell of the liquor from one of the parties to the collision caused her to faint again. “ Oh,” said counsel for defendant, “ liquor is supposed to have the opposite effect.” The lady, however, seemed unconvinced of the revivifying effects of liquor fumes. “ The Wanderer ” is the title of a very fine Paramount production depicting* the story of the prodigal son. The cast includes Ernest Torrence, Greta Nissen, William .Collier, Wallace Beery, Tyrone Power and Kathlyn Williams. The Eastern setting of this powerful story gives fine scope for the photographers, and the picture is said to be a magnificent one.*