LOWER COSTS AND HIGHER WAGES 213 
order to maintain and increase the prosperity of the 
~ountry.? 
The continuance of good times for the employed and of 
general business prosperity [he stated] depends largely upon 
maintaining throughout this land the highest possible wage 
rate that can be paid to those who labor for a livelihood. It 
matters not what the occupation may be, the common laborer, 
the mechanic, the bank clerk, the professional subordinate of 
all classes should be more seriously considered by those who 
are their employers. 
We should rise above paying only such wages as the sup- 
ply and demand requires us to do; we should pay a living 
wage to all, and then with well-paid assistance hustle to con- 
tinue in business. 
The wage-earners constitute the great majority of our pop- 
ulation. These people are the spenders of the nation, and 
upon their ability to spend freely the general business of our 
country depends. Manufactured products of all kinds must be 
furnished them as well as the necessary staples of life. It is 
the wage of these people that makes good times or bad, 
dependent on what they are earning over and above the 
actual necessities of life. 
The farmer and the tradesman look to them as a market 
for their products, and if the wage-earner is short of funds 
all trade suffers and general business suffers severely. 
The standard of life among the masses has not advanced 
greatly since the World War, and it must not move backward. 
One of our leading merchants and publicists, Edward 
A. Filene, of Boston, has taken, so far as the international 
aspect of the matter is concerned, an attitude opposed to 
Mr. Untermyer. While recognizing the policy of mass 
Production and high wages as the foundation of American 
prosperity, he contends also that its stability is in large 
measure dependent upon increasing the buying power of 
. 1 “Speeding Up For Prosperity,” by Samuel M. Vauclain, President, Bald- 
win Locomative Works, Philadelphia; Nation's Business. Nay. 1928.