Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Current Economic Affairs (1924).pdf/78

64 economists know would soon make things worse for him.

Similarly, the white-collar classes, squirming under famine prices for anthracite and increases in railway commutation fares for which labor dictations are responsible, are the victims of economic insanity in praying for governmental operation of the coal mines and the railways, which is just what the labor organizations want and which would make conditions far worse for everybody, as would quickly appear in prices.

There is a big economic difference between labor that grabs more than its due, like the anthracite workers, but nevertheless works, and labor that aims under governmental management to get more men on the job, as happened when railway transportation was being directed by Mr. McAdoo.

The way to lower prices is the removal of artificial restrictions that counteract free competition and the curtailment of the diversion of labor to service. The first of these policies would increase production by the promotion of efficiency. The second would add to the number of workers available for the production of needful things and would be expressed to a large extent in contraction of governmental operations, that would result in lower taxes. In speaking of governmental operations, I refer, of course, not only to the Federal but also to the state and municipal.

If the Federal expense for bond charges and pensions be deducted, about one-eighth of the national income in 1922 was drafted for the expense of government. The present administration has effected praiseworthy economies, but after all it has not gone very far in cutting down service. The states and municipalities