206 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
suffer if labor-saving machinery is to load us down with 
chronic increases in the unproductive and unemployed. We 
all lose something the moment a single worker loses an oppor- 
tunity for employment and ceases to produce wealth. We 
must not curtail our market in that way either. 
The National Industrial Conference Board has raised 
the question as to whether the proper use of savings in ex- 
tending our capital equipment may be more of benefit to 
consumers than direct wage payments, but it also concedes 
that high wages are an important factor in sustaining the 
buying power of the community, In one of its recent 
publications, the following statement was made on this 
point :! 
. . . . If, however, the employer belongs to the school of 
economic thought which holds that mounting wages, by en- 
larging domestic markets, are the surest insurance against 
business depression, he may distribute any pertion of the in- 
creased profits in the form of higher wages, but it is difficult 
to establish any moral obligation to do so. Without doubt, 
high wages are an important factor in sustaining consumer 
buying power, but it is still an unsettled question whether the 
proper use of business and private savings in extending our 
capital equipment may not be a more important factor in the 
consumer market than direct wage payments. 
The building boom, and the unprecedented sales of auto- 
mobiles and other articles formerly considered luxuries, 
during the three years 1924-1926, Mr. Carl Snyder, Statis- 
tician for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, attrib- 
uted to the advance in wages and purchasing power of 
wage-earners during the same period. 
In an adverse criticism of “The Road to Plenty” by 
Foster and Catchings, Mr. Samuel Untermyer declared in 
February, 1928, that the only possibility of continued pros- 
"1 Washington Herald, February 14, 1928; p. 2.