Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Current Economic Affairs (1924).pdf/137

Rh The rise in their wages is explained by scarcity of such workers and great demand for their services.

Everybody knows moreover that it is not uncommon to find higher wages than the union scale being paid in open shops. The greatest exponent of the open shop in this country is the U. S. Steel Corporation. Its wage scale rose from 100 in 1913 to 254 in 1920, which was as great a rise as in any industry. Even in the strongly unionized field of railroading the average compensation of employees rose only to 236 in 1920. But while steel labor fell to 162 in 1922 railway labor was held at 216.

It may be that a labor union by threat of a general strike becomes able to resist wage reductions in times of business depression. If so that is a bad thing. It is probable that the complete unionization of the workers in an industry, acting in collusion with their employers, may arbitrarily enhance their wages at the expense of the public. There may be results of that nature in the anthracite coal mining industry. Also in the building trades and some branches of manufacturing. These unions are absolutely cold-blooded and selfish. I know instances where there are rival unions which knife each other remorselessly, although both have the common idea of skinning the public.

Apart from such excrescences, however, I do not believe that the labor unions have very much to do with the determination of wages. Their great mischief has been in the economic restrictions that they have