CHAPTER XII LABOR AND THE NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION A proper constructive policy of industrial cooperation and coordination, obviously, is also of supreme importance to wage-earners. It involves not only the continuance of existing theories and procedures as to wage determination, but also the development of concrete methods for the practical application of existing theories. Before taking up the considerations, however, which should affect labor in cooperating toward the realization of sound industrial statesmanship, one striking aspect of the existing situation should not be overlooked. Tt is apparent that in the extraordinary industrial de- velopments of the past five years, the changes which have occurred in theories of wage-determination have been even more revolutionary than those which have had to do with the physical equipment, technique, and administration of industry itself. The stones which were rejected in pre- war days have become an essential part of the very founda- tions of the new industrial order. Wage theories which were not even regarded as suitable for consideration, and which were execrated as destructive by the industrial leadership of the pre-war period, have been unreservedly accepted and applied in the new order of industrial prog- ress inaugurated in the year 1923. Theories and principles of wage fixation which formerly prevailed have been dis- carded for other theories and standards which, when formerly advocated, were rejected, often arbitrarily, by the pre-war captains of industry as “obviously unsafe,” “unsound,” or “visionary” and impossible of acceptance. 270