HUGE STRIKE LOSSES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3559, 23 August 1920, Page 3

HUGE STRIKE LOSSES.

An incomplete list ol direct losses due to strikes in 1919 j u the United States places the cost to labour in wages at nearly £145,000,000, and to industry at more than £250,000,000. Francis H. Sisson, vice-president of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York told ;he .silver jubilee convention of the National Association of Manufacturers in New York, a week or two back. The chief danger in the present situation, Sisson said, is that the desirability of low prices as an end in itself may be so exaggerated as to lead to the attempt to force prices down through harmful measures for the control of credit. The banker analysed the effect of industrial unrest on the conn ry ! s econom.c condition, blaming strike fevers for high living costs and increased rents. "We have heard much about rent profiteers, *’ Sisson said, "but organised labour either docs not realise or closes its eyes to the fact that every time men employed in the building trades go on a strike or shirk at their task they penalise society — which includes themselves—by increasing the cost of building, thus increasing rent, and, as a result, make prices for goods and services higher."