eee se 
TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F: 561 
tlie blind duel between wages and prices. Each seems to be gaining a 
victory, but on both sides it is practically barren, while, as is usual in such 
cases, many non-combatants are suffering innocently and unnecessarily. 
But the issue is not merely a negative one. ‘There is a positive and 
serious disadvantage in this needless raising of wages and prices. We 
cannot expect steady employment and ready sales to continue without 
interruption. In times of continuous employment it may appear of little 
moment whether the wage-earner receives a lower wage which buys cheaper 
goods or a higher wage which buys a like amount of dearer goods. In 
times of slack work, however; high prices for the necessaries of life become 
a serious matter for a wage-earner without wages. In accordance with 
the general practice of trade unions, union labourers will not be inclined 
to accept a reduction in wages even when that might partly save the 
situation; hence the distress from slack employment is likely to be 
augmented by numerous disastrous strikes against a falling market. 
Similarly in the case of manufacturers and general employers, in times 
of depression high prices invite ruin. They stagnate trade on the one 
hand, while on the other they attract competition from without as metal 
draws the lightning. Yet employers, rather than reduce prices, will 
clamour for a higher protective tariff, in order that within its shelter 
they may form combinations to restrict production and save prices as long 
as possible, 
Altogether, these much vaunted symptoms of prosperity, high wages and 
high prices, are quite unnecessary elements of true welfare and business 
success; while in periods of temporary depression or declining trade they 
seriously impede readjustment, and by the disorders they entail may easily 
convert a moderate depression into a severe crisis, demoralising trade and 
credit and resulting in a prolonged stagnation. 
2. Recent Progress in the Uniled Kingdom as shown by Statistics. 
By Professor A. L. Bowery, M.A. 
3. Some Economic Results of Specialist Wheat Production for Hxport. 
By Professor James Mavor. 
The author described the mechatiism of the organisation of agricultural 
industrial and commercial capital by means of which wheat is moved from 
the place of production to the place of consumption, and discussed the 
effect of the process upon the economical situation of the farmer. This 
process greatly increases the velocity of the returii of his agricultural 
capital ; but it involves for him a certain dependence upon the mechanism. 
Thus, it may be an act of wisdom for him in order to recover his inde- 
pendence to engage in mixed farming, or at all events to modify his 
specialisation in order to avoid the risks which specialist production 
necessarily involves. 
4. The Economic Efficiency of the Chinese. 
By N. C. Home, B.A., LL.B. 
The possible importance of the investigation of the economic charac- 
teristics of different peoples, and in particular of the Chinese pedple, was 
discussed. 
The Chinese people is mainly a race of petty farmers, cliaracterised by 
independence of Governmental control and submission to the liead of the 
family. They can develop physical energy on a minimum food supply. 
Their daily lives are influenced by the Confucian rules of coiduét. 
1909, 00 
