Page:Economic Development in Denmark Before and During the World War.djvu/109

Rh the requirements of the community, with a change, if necessary, in their foundation regulation.

Proofs of an apparently growing wealth are further furnished by the fluctuation of wages. In 1915 the wages of an agricultural labourer had reached the very modest average of 850 kroner ($228) per annum; in 1918 provisional statistics show an increase to 1,390 kroner ($373). The figures indicate a gain of nearly 64 per cent.; but in reality the purchasing power of the agricultural labourer had rather decreased during the war.

In trade and industry the figures are considerably higher. The average hourly wage of a skilled mason in the capital rose from 87.5 öre ($0.23) in 1913 to 150 öre ($0.40) in 1918; that of an unskilled mason from 61 to 117 öre ($0.31); and that of a male workman in a boot factory from 52.5 ($0.14) to 113 öre ($0.30). These figures seem to indicate that the wages of unskilled labourers have kept pace with the times as regards purchasing power, but that the same scarcely applies to skilled labourers. It is possible, however, that conditions will be more favourable for workmen after the inevitable struggle for higher wages which will be kept up now that the war is over. They will fight to the utmost for the maintenance of the level now reached, even though the price of food, fuel, and clothing decreases. But meanwhile the rise in wages will be neutralized by the rise in prices.

All this reminds one of the old story of Munchausen who pulled himself up by his hair. Prices rise and labourers demand higher prices; increased wages are then followed by increased prices, and increased prices in turn lead to a demand for increased wages, and so on. Only one class of the community loses by this movement, namely, the persons who receive fixed salaries, and who see their capital and income reduced, so to speak, to half what it was. This, too, is a loss sustained by pensioners, annuitants, and officials. Accordingly, officials are agitating for the introduction of a sliding