WAGES AND PURCHASING POWER.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20101, 3 December 1930, Page 15

WAGES AND PURCHASING POWER.

TO THE IDITOB Or TH3B PRESS. Sir,—Recently a large number of people have stated that to give a worker a high wage gives him a greater purchasing power. Thia is a fact that the average schoolboy would say is correct, if it is oorroct, how do they who advocate high wages account for the present economic position r Wages have steadily risen for the last twenty years, and now the prices tor our primary products are as low as they were twenty years ago. Those who advocate high wages forget or overlook the fact that the worker is not the only person who must have a purchasing power to keep things evenly adjusted. There are thousands of small capitalists who have upwards of a thousand pounds invested in some concern or company, who , years past have received no dividend or adeauate interest on their money, and so have been deprived to a certain extent of their purchasing power. Hundreds of these small oompames have of recent years gone into liquidation and others have reduced their staffs thus causing to a large extent the acute unemployment position. If all those who work for a limited company wish to insure their jobs, a better method than that adopted by the Government would be for them to po to their various managers and ask &at a small percentage of their wages and salaries be set aside to provide a dividend for those shareholders whose money has kept them in employment for years and will continue to do so if they can get a fair interest. Yours, etc., p BROWN. December Ist, 1930.