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Rh clerical labor has probably not increased so much as it has in the factories, where it is easier for clerks to shift to employment as operatives.

It is well-known how agriculture has suffered since 1919 at the hands of town labor. The foregoing table shows how among the classes of town labor there has been maldivision, to the profit of mechanics and laborers and to the detriment of the white collar classes. It appears also that unionism has not been the sole determinative factor in this, for the position of labor employed in the steel industry, which is conducted on the principle of the open shop has improved more than in the strongly unionized railway service. The explanation of these maldivisions is of course to be found in demand and supply, perverted by the primary unbalance between capital and labor, and affected by artificial economic restrictions of one kind or another.

It would follow as a logical conception, even if there were no evidence, that the maldivision which resulted in giving too much to some classes of labor would tend to cause them to ease off in their work and diminish production. At the same time there has been an increased diversion of labor to service (mainly public service) contributing toward the same result. Examination of the statistics of production brings out strong evidence of the actuality of diminished production, especially since the end of the war (see Chapter VI).

We need look no further for the explanation of the high prices still prevailing in the United States. The increase in population together with the increase in the buying power of many classes of wage earners intensifies the demand for some commodity, e.g.,