68 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES of wage-rates, so that prices might be reduced and pro- duction and trade resumed. They argued that wages had been inflated during the war and must now be deflated. Prosperity, it was contended, could not be revived until there was a return to “normalcy,” this term being used in the sense of a resumption of industry and trade on the basis of pre-war wage and price levels. In the smaller, diversified industries, as well as in the basic industries which were unorganized, as for example in steel and textile mills, wage-rates were arbitrarily and drastically cut as a condition to the resumption of pro- duction. In organized coal-mining areas there could be no reduction on account of existing agreements. In other highly unionized industries, also, the wage cuts were restricted in extent. In still other industries, where pub- licly established agencies for wage-adjustments existed, as on the railroads, the question of lower wages came up for judicial consideration and action. ProceepiNGgs Berore THE UNITED STATES RA1LrROAD LABOR BoarD By the early months of 1921, a bitter struggle as to fundamental principles and policies had developed on a national basis, involving more than 2,000,000 railway employees, and was centered before the recently created Railroad Labor Board. The representatives of the car- riers claimed that drastic wage reductions were an essential preliminary to the physical and financial rehabilitation of the transportation system. The employees, on the other hand, replied that a policy of lower wages would cause a still further decline in purchasing power, and would mili- tate against permanent prosperity, while the maintenance of existing wages in the higher grades of occupations and the payment of a “living wage” to unskilled workers would