Lower Prices If— The interesting figures bearing on the cost
of living to be found in the official Bulletin for Industry for August, after mentioning various further rises in prices, mainly food-prices, still to be anticipated, adds that other prices, if wages are unchanged, can be expected to remain stable for several months. Again, if labour costs remain unchanged, cheaper materials will probably lead to a, further fall in prices of clothing and other manufactured goods. The words italicised here are not so emphasised in ths original, but they deserve all emphasis. There is nothing iniquitous in asking for increased wages; in fact wages are perpetually being increased; the "wage-freeze," as official figures published last week show, is a pure myth, and a very mischievous one. Moreover the position is complicated by the fact that in many trades agreements exist under which wages rise automatically with a rise in the cost of living; other trades without such agreements naturally seek to enjoy equal benefits. But the fact remains that if wages go up prices, which .means the cost of living, will inevitably go on going up. To get the col of living down is one of the prime -national necessities at the moment. But other stages must precede that. The first step is to arrest the rise. Various factors, notably a fall in the price of primary products like cotton and tin and rubber, all of them (except a little tin) imported, may contri- bute to that. The effect of their contribution is already visible in the fall in the cost of clothing. But that, of course, is not enough. First stop the rise, then achieve reduction. That can be done. The crisis can be mitigated and ultimately exorcised on one condition, that increases of wages do not counteract all the other factors making for reduction. If it could some- how be brought home in the right way to the individual worker that restraint at this critical moment would avoid a rise in the cost of living for millions of his fellows, and help in time to bring the cost down for everyone, himself included, the road to a better state of things might prove shorter than it promises to be today. That may be commended particularly to the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, which very wisely decided on Wednesday to reopen negotiations before taking drastic action on its claim for the quite pre- posterous increase of £2 a week for all its members.
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