74 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
versed with the situation in that trade will disabuse the 
inquirer. The causes are very much more complex than 
appear on the surface. For example, the building material 
problem is one of the difficulties involved. Brick, before the 
war, was approximately $6 a thousand. It went to $32 a 
thousand last July and now is $16 a thousand and difficult 
to get at that. Owing to war conditions labor has flocked 
from the industry to the factories and no new apprentices 
have appeared to take their place. The scandalous inefficiency 
of the individual workman is partly caused by this exodus. 
[n this industry we have also to face the fact that the em- 
ployees owe loyalty to no one employer but are constantly 
shifting from one to another and that the whole employment 
system is very badly organized. Conservative labor leaders 
of the building trades are just as much alarmed over the 
situation as the employers. The difficulty of securing loans 
is another complicating factor. I merely instance this situ- 
ation in the building trade to illustrate by one example the 
complexity of conditions that prevail in almost every indus- 
try, and to indicate that, however important a factor wage 
readjustment may be, wage reduction alone will not solve 
our problems. 
Doctor Eliot, in the same connection, said: 
[ agree with what Mr. Lewisohn has just said about the 
necessity, under present circumstances, of proceeding slowly 
in regard to the reduction of wages. The reduction is, of 
course, inevitable before we can recover a satisfactory condi- 
tion in our industries. But, fortunately, there are a good 
many other things that can be done to improve the present 
product in our industries, and to increase the total output 
without reducing wages immediately. 
Many employers are protecting themselves from loss by 
running their factories on half time, or two-thirds time, with- 
out reducing wages, in the hope that by this process they can 
keep their force together, and sell their diminished product