MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 119 



ORGANIZED LABOR AND THE RECENT ADVANCE IN PRICES. 



LEWIS H. HANEY. 



This paper is written iu view of two facts : prices have risen ; wages 

 have done likewise. According to all methods of statistical judgment 

 average prices are between 30 and 40% higher than at the low level of 

 1897; just now no one can estimate the rise in average wages 

 during the past two jears, though it has probal)ly been less than that 

 of prices, just as it was somewhat greater in 1897 and 1903. 



Now, various phenomena are pointed to and mentioned as causes for 

 this advance in prices. Some say gold supply, some vanished free land; 

 some growl labor unions, others hiss "Tl-usts!" My problem is to take 

 the labor factor and inquire how it has functioned in the general rise. 

 What is the fact as to wages? What is the relation between wages and 

 prices? What part has ^'organized labor" played in the determination 

 of this relation? 



I. GENERAL PRICES AND WAGES. 



We at once reflect that a general rise in exchange values is incon- 

 ceivable to the intelligent mind, and are forced to make first the dis- 

 tinction between price and value, and then that between general values 

 and prices and particular values and prices. 



General prices may rise, for here the question is not one of a ratio 

 of exchange between commodities, but between commodities and a me- 

 dium through whose agency the commodities are exchanged: the general 

 rate of exchange may be higher or lower according to relative condi- 

 tions of supply and demand as regards the medium. 



General prices, then, may rise through changes in demand or supply of 

 money, money being defined as all media of exchange : if the quantity of 

 money or its efficiency of circulation increases, or if the number of ex 

 changes to be effected decreases, general prices will rise. Obviously 

 labor may function here as a factor in producing either media of ex- 

 change, or things to be exchanged. But the facts are patent : on the 

 supply side money has increased tremendously in quantity ; bales, 

 bushels, tons and ton miles on the demand side have also waxed, but 

 apparently the supply side has grown faster and each year the dollar 

 is worth less on the average. Without going into a wearisome statisti- 

 cal statement it may simply be stated that there appears to be no evi- 

 dence that the production of commodities as distinguished from money 

 has lagged. I leave it for others to decide if the whole change 

 be due to the increased supply of precious metals and other money 

 media. 



So far as general prices for any considerable time are concerned it 

 does not appear that wages have effected or can effect a rise in price. 

 It would be out of place in this paper to go into the theory of the fact, 

 and explain why there is no logical connection between general wages 

 and general prices. As to the facts, statistics show no great parallelism 



