THE WAR PERIOD—AN INTERREGNUM 49 
finally decided, for reasons of expediency, not to apply 
this principle in a general or arbitrary way, but only to 
sanction it in specific cases where wages were abnormally 
low and where the physical maintenance of labor for war 
production was being impaired. The specific case which 
had brought the principle up for consideration—the Ma- 
chinists of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, vs. Employers— 
was one of this character. In the decision rendered, the 
cost of living was disregarded as a guide, and the existing 
rates of pay—15 to 20 cents an hour—advanced to 40 cents 
an hour, which was decided upon at the time as a necessary 
minimum hourly rate of pay for unskilled laborers. 
Accompanying the decision, however, a resolution was 
adopted, setting forth the attitude of the Board to the 
‘living wage” principle. It was resolved: 
That this war is not only a war of arms, but also a war of 
workshops; a competition in the quantitative production and 
distribution of munitions and war supplies, a contest in indus- 
trial resourcefulness and energy; 
That the period of the war is not a normal period of indus- 
trial expansion from which the employer should expect 
unusual profits or the employees abnormal wages; that it is 
an interregnum in which industry is pursued only for com- 
mon cause and common ends; 
That capital should have only such reasonable returns as 
will assure its use for the world’s and Nation’s cause, while 
the physical well-being of labor and its physical and mental 
effectiveness in a comfort reasonable in view of the exigencies 
of the war should likewise be assured; 
That this board should be careful in its conclusions not 
to make orders in this interregnum, based on approved views 
of progress in normal times, which, under war conditions, 
might seriously impair the present economic structure of our 
country; 
That the declaration of our principles as to the living wage