40 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
congested occupations artificially, but to reduce the amount of 
drunkenness. Dependability has become an important factor in 
the value of a man, especially in the higher occupations, and 
drunkenness definitely destroys dependability, and tends to make 
any one who is addicted to drunkenness, however capable in other 
respects, unfit for one of the higher occupations. A general state 
of undependability on the part of large numbers of potentially 
high grade workers results either in their demotion or in holding 
them down to the low grade or poorly paid occupations. The 
remedy for this situation, again, is not to decree high wages for 
those that are poorly paid, but to remove one or more of the 
reasons for those low wages. Low wages are universally the result 
of a congested occupation. The general promotion of sobriety 
would be another way of relieving that congestion. If that could 
be done, then without further effort, a higher equilibrium wage 
would automatically assert itself. 
The equilibrium wage is not wholly a matter of the supply 
of labor; it is partly a matter of demand. With a given supply of 
labor an equilibrium wage is a low wage if there is so little 
demand as to create a situation where as many laborers will 
offer themselves at the low wage as will be hired, at that wage, 
by the limited number of employers. It may be found, therefore, 
that one factor in a low equilibrium wage is a lack of demand 
for laborers. In that case we need to analyze the factors that 
enter into the demand for labor. If it is found that one impor- 
tant factor is a lack of managerial skill, or the fact that few men 
00 into business who have the ability to organize the factors of 
production effectively, that is, in such ways as to enable the 
oroducts to be sold at prices which will induce consumers to buy, 
then the obvious thing is to see what can be done toward increas- 
ing the number and raising the quality of men who will go into 
industry as managers. A first-class school of business adminis- 
tration, if it can perceptibly increase the number and improve the 
quality of industrial managers, may be more effective in raising 
wages than 10,000 agitators demanding an immediate and direct 
rise in wages. 
To try to force a small number of managers of low capacity 
to pay higher wages may simply bankrupt a number of them, 
causing them to close down and thus throw considerable num- 
bers of laborers out of employment, again creating an industrial