Shortage

“ While farmers seem now to complain most of the labor shortage, the difficulty is not peculiarly rural. Good farmers feel it least; they have mastered this problem along with other problems. As a matter of fact, it is doubtful whether there is a real labor shortage as measured by [Pg 135] previous periods; but it is very difficult to secure good labor on the previous terms and conditions. ”

“ Thus the general supply of products may alternate periodically between shortage and surplus relative to the social demand.
Herein lies the peculiar character of reproduction in a capitalist society, which differs from all other known forms of production. In the first place, every branch of production develops independently within certain limits, in a way that leads to periodical interruptions of production of shorter or longer duration. ”

“ Now people regarded him suspiciously, dogs snapped at his heels, and farmers' women thrust him doles of food through half-opened kitchen doors. Here and there he picked up a stray job or two. But he was plainly inefficient for most tasks assigned him... In the small towns there were not enough jobs to go round ... young men were returning from overseas and dislodging the incompetents who had achieved prosperity because of the labor shortage. ”

“ But the prices of food and necessaries of life are still so high that, despite the considerable rise in wages, many working-people cannot afford to pay for adequate nourishment. The present food shortage is still great [115] and, owing to the absence of feeding stuffs and manures, stock and land have both deteriorated. Supplies remain, therefore, at a level far below that of pre-war production, a circumstance aggravated by the world shortage and the financial chaos of the country. ”

“ The grocers depend year after year upon the same group of persons for customers. Under such conditions any habitual shortage would certainly be discovered and in the end would work harm to the business. ”

“ The commission merchant had such facilities for storage and such knowledge of market conditions that he frequently could take advantage of market fluctuations to increase his profits. The farmer who sold his produce at a low price and then saw it disposed of as a much higher figure was naturally enraged, but he could devise no adequate remedy. Attempts to regulate market conditions by creating an artificial shortage seldom met with success. ”

“ The bureaus would direct the job applicants to industries and positions where labor was most urgently needed. Because of the shortage of skilled labor, however, enterprise managers continued to hire new labor without regard to the requirements of the law.
The shortage of adequately trained personnel adversely affects the utilization of available capacity; it entails frequent breakdowns of machinery and inhibits multishift operation of plants. More than 20 percent of worktime is usually lost through idling, and equipment is used at no more than 50 to 60 percent of capacity. ”

“ The demands for raw material and finished products from certain of the European countries has increased tremendously and a shortage of labor in this country has been the result. Concerns have bid against one another to secure sufficient labor and for the first time in years we have a condition in which the demand for labor of all kinds exceeds the supply. ”

“ Lack of any adequate system of agricultural credit, whereby the farmer may readily secure loans on fair terms; the shortage of labor, a condition that is often complicated by intemperance among workmen; lack of institutions and incentives that tie the laboring man to the soil ”

“ Some people must be making a lot."
"Not so much as the food people."
"I don't believe the food people do make so much. It's the world shortage that causes the trouble, not the prices—or rather one involves the other." ”

“ If, in a particular instance, raw material appeared to be the immediate shortage, the larger or more pushing claimants upon it had to be prevented from over-riding other claims which, though more modest, were from the national standpoint equally valid. ”

“ They are often rather indirect and negative, for it is only on the basis of price fluctuations that they indicate whether the aggregate of produced commodities falls short of the effective demand or exceeds it. Yet the individual private producers make recurrent use of these experiences of the preceding labour period when they re-engage in reproduction, so that glut or shortage are bound to occur again in the following period. Individual branches of production may develop independently, so that there may be a surplus in one branch and a deficiency in another. ”

“ Turning from the question of low productivity per man to that of absolute shortage of men: the example given at the beginning of this chapter, showing that in the most important group of factories the number of workmen has fallen 50 per cent. ”

“ If, due to unforeseen circumstances, over which we have failed to exercise adequate control, there is some shortage, let the idler and the wastrel suffer. Under all circumstances the producers must have all those goods and services needed to preserve their productive efficiency. ”

“ Although economic development is still in its infancy, growing concern has been officially expressed about the adequacy of the labor force to meet the needs of industrialization and [Pg 147] of expanding social services without adversely affecting agricultural production. The main cause of the incipient labor shortage is low productivity owing to a lack of industrial experience, a low level of mechanization, and the survival of backward traditional methods in agriculture. ”

“ At the same time, food shortage and even famine had already made themselves felt in the cities. The organization for the maintenance of supplies had broken down completely for the reasons just mentioned. ”

“ We reach a condition where there is a shortage of houses, but where nevertheless no one can afford to live in the houses that there are. ”

“ For political reasons and because of general shortages the closing of uneconomic enterprises was not considered feasible. Maintenance of fixed prices over long periods of time has been deemed essential for purposes of planning. ”

“ To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due to lack of shipping, the representatives of the different supply departments were constantly in search of available material and supplies in Europe. ”

“ That the continued and increasing depression of the manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural interests of this country, and the wide-spreading distress of the working classes, are most alarming:—manufacturers without a market, and shipping without freight; capital without investment, trade without profit; and farmers struggling under a system of high rents, with prices falling, as the means of consumption by the people fail; a working population rapidly increasing, and a daily decreasing demand for its labour ”

“ This check to production, beginning at the basis of interlaced industry, propagates itself from exchange point to exchange point, cessation of supply becoming failure of demand, until, so to speak, the whole machine is thrown out of gear, and the spectacle is everywhere presented of labor going to waste while laborers suffer from want.
This strange and unnatural spectacle of large numbers of willing men who cannot find employment is enough to suggest the true cause to whomsoever can think consecutively. ”

“ The traders and shopkeepers, for want of business, were, many of them, unable to meet their engagements and to maintain their stations and the working classes, an intelligent and industrious class, were suffering under severe and unexampled distress. The manufacturers, unable to sell their goods, were driven to lower their prices, to limit their work, and reduce their wages. The working men had to contend with all this—with a high price of food, and with privations without a ray of hope. ”

“ It accumulates a heavier supply than is demanded in the home-market. It overwhelms factories with their own goods, and drowns the manufacturer in bankruptcy, unless he stops work. It turns worthy, as well as unworthy, working-men adrift. It brings on all the horrors so piteously complained of. What can avert such consequences? There are, doubtless, factors in this problem unnoticed here, but this to me appears to be the main one. Allow wages to descend steadily, as the market demands, instead of holding them up till a crisis is reached. ”

“ While supply so enormously exceeds demand, how can any market be in a healthy condition?
Men and women, and boys and girls, all eager for something to do, are to be had by thousands, and labour is at a discount. If the supply diminished, and hands were more in proportion to the work to be done, labour would be at a premium. ”

“ To what cause can such a depression as this, so long and continuous, be attributed, except to a general curtailment of demand on the part of the consumers, arising from the insufficiency of their means to make purchases as before? You are probably aware that what is called strict economy in families is not favourable to the interests of manufacture or of [646] trade. Of manufactures of all kinds there must be a certain yearly consumption, based upon the necessities of the people. ”

“ This stagnation of our manufacturing trade in the country would have put the people there to much greater difficulties, but that the master-workmen, clothiers and others, to the uttermost of their stocks and strength, kept on making their goods to keep the poor at work, believing that soon as the sickness should abate they would have a quick demand in proportion to the decay of their trade at that time. ”

“ As there is little demand for the products of labor, the production must decrease to conform to the decreased demand. Employment must be restricted, wages must be reduced, and transportation and every form of exchange must shrink with a shrinking circulation. There must be less employment on the farm, less employment in the factories and forests, less employment in the mines, less employment on the lines of transportation, less employment of merchants and middlemen, less increase and distribution of the things which are necessary to the comfort and subsistence of the human family. ”

“ But already there are more goods than can be sold; there are no longer enough profits to supply the demands of the great mass of heaped-up capital. So comes a glut of goods, and factories have to shut down, and we have “hard times.” Just what are “hard times,” Judd? Paste this in your hat now:
Hard times are tenant farmers starving because they have raised too much food! ”

“ The number of people brought by a sudden demand for labour might have lessened. 69Some might have departed elsewhere, and others have devised plans for a new introduction or better economy of food; and after a short period of hardship, the demand for food might have gradually accommodated itself to the supply; for their society was not like the population of an overgrown district, where there may be mistakes in ascribing effects to causes, and where the blame of hardship may be laid in the wrong place. ”

“ The sales slacken, the prices fall, production is limited. To limit production in any branch means to decrease the number of workers employed in this branch, and a reduction in wages, whereby the workers in turn are compelled to limit their consumption. The inevitable result is, that production and consumption in other branches slacken likewise. Small dealers of all kinds, shopkeepers, bakers, butchers, etc. whose chief customers are workingmen fail to dispose of their goods and also suffer want. ”

“ In a season of scarcity the least resolute would draw upon their hoards, and, by enhancing the price of provisions, would compel others to do the same. And, though this would tend to equalize the supply of food through a series of years, it would only have the tendency, without fully producing the effect. ”

“ The other school say that the speculation has produced the depression by leading to over-consumption, and point to full warehouses, rusting steamers, closed mills, and idle workmen as evidences of a cessation of effective demand, which, they say, evidently results from the fact that people, made extravagant by a fictitious prosperity, have lived beyond their means and are now obliged to retrench - that is, to consume less wealth. ”

“ This stoppage of production at some points must necessarily show itself at other points of the industrial network in a cessation of demand which would again check production there and thus the paralysis would communicate itself through all the interlacings of industry and commerce producing everywhere a partial disjointing of production and exchange and resulting in the phenomena that see to show over-production or over-consumption, according to the standpoint from which they are viewed. ”

“ The reason for this is to be found in the difficulty of transferring labour from the place at which it exists to that at which it is needed; and it is to that we have to attribute the fact that the tendency to depression in the wages of all labour is so very great when there is even a very small excess of supply, and the tendency to elevation so great when there is even a very small excess of demand. ”

“ While industry remains unorganized such waste of capital must continue, for lacking an estimate of the quantity of commodities required in any particular department, the limits of consumption can only be found by fruitless attempts to discover an unsatisfied demand. This blind application of capital, not to service, but in the hope of gain, accounts for the waste of large quantities of labour. ”