B.M. Jewell, head of the railroad shops crafts unions, has recently issued a statement in which he advances the position that the laboring man should receive $2,636 per year because it costs this amount to support his family, and that America “with such productive power and such natural resources should afford all her workers more than a shabby existence.” As a general proposition public sentiment will go a long ways towards supporting Mr. Jewell’s position, as the time has past when labor can any longer cease to be rewarded for its real value. But the basis upon which Mr. Jewell rests his proposition, as well as his figures, will not be generally accepted as sound. The measure of the value of wages, just as the measure of any other value, is not the expense which the wage earner may have to sustain, but is the earning power of the workman.
“The laboring man” includes the man in the office who is working on a salary, the locomotive engineer, the expert machinist, the merchandise clerk, the farm hand and the hod-carrier. Each may have a family of the same size which may desire to be maintained in the same condition as other people, but the salary of each must be based on his earning capacity in the sphere of action in which he is engaged, and not upon the amount that is required for him and his family to live in the condition in which he desires. Mr. Jewell is no doubt speaking of the class of men who compose the shops crafts union, who are generally expert workmen; but the ordinary laborer has the same argument if the needs of his family is the basis. If the farm hand with a large family gets $2,636 per year we may expect the cost of food to be out of reason when it reaches the craftsman as a consumer. We believe that the cause of labor has suffered more from its failure to recognize the intrinsic value of its own product than from any other cause; and the needs or desires of the individual can never be established as a basis for measuring his wages, but the only true basis is one’s earning capacity. All investments are valued according to the net return derived form them, and when one has anything to sell, whether it be land, personal property, or services rendered, the price must be fixed according to the commercial value of the article and not according to the needs of the seller. It is true that the natural resources of the country should sustain the population, but the people should not be supported out of the resources, but from the earnings derived therefrom. These arise from the combined efforts of capital and labor, and the division of the spoils should be fair and equitable.
A good cause may often be hurt by placing it on an unsound basis while it would be generally supported if placed upon a correct basis; and we suspect that the thinking public will not accept Mr. Jewell’s argument as invincible. We are quite sure that the chief cause of the world’s present condition is that we are all demanding of this world’s goods more than we are earning, and such condition can not always continue. We must all endeavor to produce more and earn more for ourselves, and then to live within our means.
From the editorial page of The Wilmington Morning Star, April 2,1922. From the DollarTimes.com, adjusted for inflation, the proposed livable salary of $2,636 per year would be $24,174 today. That would be $11.62 an hour.
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