218 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
were only self-seeking agencies, promoting their own inter- 
ests at the expense of any other element that might interpose 
objection. These persons have tried to make a case against 
wage increases as a selfish end, detrimental to the rest of so- 
ciety. The new economic literature which interprets the in- 
fAuence of consumption as a factor in the business cycle, is 
helping to reveal the constructive economic consequences of 
organized labor’s high wage standard. 
The Executive Council of the Federation of Labor also 
strengthened President Green’s statements by a formal 
declaration in 1926, as follows :! 
American methods of production and efficiency are the sub- 
ject of study by employers, technicians and wage-earners of 
many countries. The American labor movement has been 
foremost in recognizing the interdependence of the interest 
of all concerned with production and in declaring that in- 
creased productivity is essential to permanent increases in 
the standards of living. On the other hand, American labor 
has pointed out that workers must have wage increases if 
there is to be sale for the increased output of industries and 
agriculture. . . . The results of organized labor’s activities 
benefit the whole of the general public. High wages and 
shorter working hours are recognized as national assets. The 
public generally is coming to understand that with the great 
tendency of mass production continuing in the future to the 
same degree as has been experienced in the past there must 
be created of necessity an ever enlarging buying power or 
else our productive processes will spell their own ruination 
and prove a public calamity. The wage-earners and their 
dependents constitute a large proportion of that consuming 
public; it is therefore essential that the income of the wage- 
earners must of necessity increase. 
The “new thought” as to productiveness, prosperity, and 
consumption has already become a commonplace of bank- 
1 Report of the Executive Council to the 46th Annual Convention, Detroit, 
Michigan, October 4, 1926; p. 27.