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