from what they produce by their labor or being capable of any guarantee by a superior power. When transportation and manufacturing labor bring about conditions that increase the cost of the things the farmer has to buy they diminish his living wage by just so much.
Labor should not resist deflation, nor expect to preserve the rates of wages that were established in terms of inflated dollars. The great primary classes of labor are those who live in towns and work mainly in them; and those who live on farms and cultivate them. If deflation reduces the national income in terms of dollars and if town labor maintains previous income in terms of dollars; i.e., if it maintains its previous rates of wages and working time, by virtue of concerted action or otherwise, it is getting an undue share of the national produce at the expense of the farmers. In other words, the farmer, who is subject directly to the law of supply and demand, may get greatly diminished prices for what he has to sell and be required to pay undiminished prices for what he has to buy. Precisely this condition has existed during the last three years. Although town labor profits thus inequitably and uneconomically at the expense of the farmer it is found that classes of town labor profit at the expense of each other. The building mechanic who is able by virtue of close unions to command exorbitant wages for his labor, and who by reason thereof reduces his working hours and his performance per hour, increases the cost of houses and consequently the rental thereof to the men and women who work in the factories. Similarly do anthracite coal miners and men who are engaged in transportation prey upon the other classes of town workers.
