ABANDONMENT OF OLD-TIME THEORIES oI

Citations could be multiplied as to the revolutionary
change in attitude toward the commodity theory of wagefixing,
 or toward cost of living as a wage-adjustment factor.
 As a matter of fact, both of these old ideas were
either subordinated to or lost sight of in the new concep-Hon
 as to wage and industrial policies which came to the
forefront after the year 1923.1

Actual EXPERIENCE SHOWS ABANDONMENT OF
OLp THEORIES

Industrial experience itself since the year 1923 is an
expression of this changed attitude. The practical procedure
 which industry has followed shows conclusively
that no stress has been placed upon the index-of-living
costs, or upon supply and demand as the bases for recurring
 wage adjustments. Quite the reverse has been true.
This fact is demonstrated by the diagram opposite page
92, reproduced from the Monthly Review of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York.
The composite wage index of the diagram includes per
capita earnings of factory operatives, railway employees,
agricultural, building, and generally unskilled labor, salaries
 paid to teachers, and earnings of clerical help. It is,
therefore, representative of all classes. If labor in the
farming industry, which has been abnormally depressed
since the war, were omitted, the rise in wages would be
greater. The cost-of-living index is that of the United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[t will be noted from the diagram that the trend of wages
has been upward and the cost of living, on the other hand,
downward, during the past five years. Mr. Carl Snyder,
statistician of the New York Reserve Bank and author
1 For further citations see Feis, “Principles of Wage Settlement,” Chapters
IV and V, and Chapter VII, Supplementary Note A.