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.