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Show ID SITUATION IS UPSETT1 THEORY I New York Editor Discusses Question of Price-Fixing. Price-Fixing. The gold producer is between the devil of leaner ore and the deep blue sea of i fatter commodity and labor prices. The before mentioned davil has kept tfie I world's output practically stationary for I the last ten years, and strenuous efforts to lower extraction costs by improved x1l infrfug and metallurgical management Have been overwhelmed by a tidal-wave Y of war prices. I Suppose you had revised your boiler I room practice and equipment with much care and had .finally in-Jkcreased in-Jkcreased the over-all efficiency by Tltrrie fifteen per cent. After looking; ' ovVsvine.. results with considerable com-- com-- L placAcy you receive a letter one morn-I morn-I ing from your coal contractor saying that I thereafter the price of your fuel will be I the $2.50 allowed by administrative action instead of the $1.00 called for by your I contract. Then you would feel as the ment, have agreed to tax the war excess profits, proceeding on the theorv that no one should grow fat on blood money-Right money-Right here is where the gold miner feels aggrieved. Theoretically, war taxes are imposts on excessive income returned from the inflated prices attending this cataclysm. Everyofoe can and does charge more for his produce than he could before, except the gold miner. The price of his yellow metal was established internationally long before the present price-fixing program was imagined; but unfortunately the more fundamental relationship rela-tionship between an ounce of gold and a day of labor was not recognized. Consequently Con-sequently the price of gold actually has dropped through its inability to purchase the old amount of other necessary products prod-ucts of man's labor. Since war prices have brought only a decrease in net revenue rev-enue t& the gold miner, his claim for exemption from war-profit taxation is well founded. It will probably fall on deaf ears, however, since to the ordinary I run of mankind mining is a speculative ! enterprise rather than a foundation stone of industry. The ultimate relationship of the value of gold and of all other things is somewhat some-what as follows: If a countrv needs a thing, such as it does gold, and needs it badly, its citizens set themselves about getting it. If it exists, it can be had for a price. But the price paid to get it must not be greater than that which it in turn will buy. Therefore, as long as gold is to be the monetary standard, its ' value must fix the maximum limit to the ; price of labor and commodities. The ; spectacle of a stagnating gold production, j while painful to the gold miner, is a welcome indication that, taken in a large way, the crest of high price's has been reached; a halt must be called else pasa-! pasa-! Ing time will dangerously inflate an al- ready topheavy financial structure. Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering. I guiu miner xeeis. The copper producer Is in a different boat. He had cannily taken advantage of the present style in price-fixing and can point out that the increased cost of living demands a higher wage. For be It understood that the law (if it be a j law) of supply and demand is distinctly out of date; 'Mother Grundy has whispered whis-pered that a ruffian called Mars has spiked its guns, so that the time-honored statute can be winked at with impunity. Time was when the impression was abroad that the more a man produced the better he should be paid, that the more efficiently a business was conducted the better should be the profits. Maximum Maxi-mum production with the minimum expenditure seemed the ideal which would provide amply for the comfort of great and small. But apparently we were all wrong nowadays wages are fixed by the cost of living, men and industries are paid according to what they spend, the-tradesmen the-tradesmen get all they can and let the hindmost look out for himself. Truly a comfortable creed if you are some distance dis-tance from Uie hindmost, but a rule of conduct not calculated to cause soul-searching soul-searching as to whether one is doing the best that is in him, or getting the best out of his tools. Fortunately, there is a tacit agreement that this new philosophy is spurious and results In a vicious cycle of increasing Prices, for all of us, through our govern- |
