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Show LABOR AND WAGES. A man who works for wages often feels that he is not receiving a fair share of the value of his production. When a number of men employed in the same kind of work get that idea, they organize a union, ask for more wages, and failing to get a raise, quit their jobs. If the supply of laborers is large, their places are easily filled, but if the supply sup-ply is small, usually their request for more wages is reluctantly granted. Now it is an unassailable proposition that labor is entitled to a fair share of that which it produces. pro-duces. Undoubtedly there are some industries where labor gets more than a fair share, just as there are industries in which labor gets less than a fair share. And that is also undoubtedly true of the individual laborer engaged in any occupation, whether skilled or unskilled. In the controversies between employer and employe, there is frequently made a demand for a flat rate of pay for every man engaged in the industry. Unskilled workers insist that each man engaged receive the same wage, and that is true of nearly all the skilled trades. It doesn't make any difference if one man is able to do 25 or 50 per cent more than another, and at the same time do better work, the workers . frequently make the egregious mistake of insisting insist-ing on equal pay for all. The effect of such an arrangement, ar-rangement, of course, is to put a premium on incompetence in-competence and a damper on enthusiastic endeavor. Thus labor may get its just share, but the individual indi-vidual laborer does not. A uniform wage naturally natural-ly causes the worker to hold his production down to the production of his less-skilled co-workers. He is capable of more without much exertion, but if he increased his outnut 50 ner cent, he would'nt get any more money for his efforts, and his coworkers co-workers probably would lose their jobs for displaying display-ing incompetence. Or if he is paid to produce his maximum of 50 per cent more than the average, his wages for that 50 per cent probably are only 10 per cent greater than those about him. The obligation on the part of the employer to pay fair wages, however, does not take from the laborer the obligation to give full service. The more he produces, the more right he has to lay claim to a larger share of what is paid to labor. The more he shirks the less claim he has upon that portion. And men do not get much for shirking. And just as it is the right of the laborer to claim a portion of the tiling he produces as his own, so it is the obligation of capital to pay full value for the service. But labor may not claim that right and impose that obligation without an honest recognition rec-ognition that a right presupposes an obligation, and an obligation emphasizes a right. Justice, blindfolded, holds up the balance. Just wages demand full measure of service, and full measure of service demands just wages. Labor, collectively or individually, may not ask more, and capital well, capital usually pays what it has to to get its work done. |