WAGES FIXED BY LAW
To the Editor:
Your San Pedro correspondent[[2]] has got his figures on wages wrong and he leaves the expenses of business out of account. The 1910 Census bulletin of manufactures gives the figures thus, stated in thousands of dollars:
[2]. See The Survey of February 8, 1913, p. 653.
| Value of Product | 20,767,546 | |
| Wages (16¹¹⁄₂₀%) | 3,434,734 | |
| Salaries (4¹¹⁄₂₀%) | 940,900 | |
| Cost of Material (58¹⁴⁄₂₀%) | 12,194,019 | |
| Miscellaneous expenses (9⁸⁄₂₀%) | 1,955,773 | |
| 18,525,426 | ||
| Balance for manufacturers | 2,242,120 |
This balance is 10¹⁶⁄₂₀ per cent of the value of the product. Out of this interest on capital and wear and tear have to be met. The employees, in wages and salaries, get 21²⁄₂₀ per cent—just about twice what the manufacturers get. If 13 per cent were to be added to wages, as Mr. Deegan proposes, there would be a loss and business would not be done.
He may say charge more for the goods. But he complains of the high cost of living now. To increase it would be an injury—not a benefit.
My advice to all my labor friends would be to reduce the cost of production by making labor more efficient. Avoid strikes, settle differences by arbitration. If existing arbitration tribunals are inadequate, provide better, and remember that the real interests of labor and capital are identical. Labor would be fruitless, without factories and machinery. The men who invent or provide these are entitled to their share.
Everett P. Wheeler.
New York.