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Show Washington Snapshots It is estimated that wages, including in-cluding those which go to make up the cost of raw material, and the wages paid in transportation and trade, run to an average of 80 per cent of the total cost of production. pro-duction. Over the long term, real wages can only be increased through greater productivity through full and efective use of better working equipment. And here again Amer- ican management has given the men and women of America tangible tan-gible proof of what the enterprise system can and will accomplish, once we get the sand out of its gears. Real wages have actually been increased by 22 per cent since 1939. Those are facts which are forgotten for-gotten in the understandable dismay dis-may of the housewife who is trying try-ing to stretch those "real wages" over the high cost of living today. But those "real wages" will do the job, if consumers will buy to meet their real needs instead of to satisfy sat-isfy th-eir wants. If housewives will realize that when they all try to buy scarce items on the same day they are forcing up prices if, for example, as long as meat and eggs are in such desperately . short supply, they will use other and just as palatable foods, they can help mightily to bring prices down. In view of increased costs, manufacturers' prices have been kept well in line. However, the manufacturers can do better if everybody pitches in and does what it takes to make America's economy work better than ever before. |