76 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES world has some formidable aspects; but this is the way to meet all its dangers. DEFLATION PoLicy ADOPTED Altho the foregoing forms of admonition, as well as the contentions of industrial workers, were fundamentally sound, as later developments proved, they were practically unavailing. Extreme policies of wage deflation were fol- lowed. The Railroad Labor Board granted the request of railway managements for a reduction of rates of pay of employees on the ground of the current decline in living costs and the unprofitable condition of the transportation industry, and ignored all other factors affecting wages. Similar policies were adopted in many other branches of industry. These conditions added to the widespread industrial dis- satisfaction and conflict. In the summer of 1922, a strike of all railway employees, other than train and engine crews, was threatened, but was finally restricted to a nation-wide strike of the shop crafts, which, however, was disastrous to the transportation industry and to business in general. As the result, the Railroad Labor Board lost its prestige permanently, and was finally eliminated by special legis- lation. Despite these and other untoward conditions, the general policy of attempting to revive industry and trade by wage deflation, or, in other words, by reducing rates of pay in accordance with lower living costs, continued for more than a year. There was no encouraging change, however, in the existing condition of industrial depression. It was not until the beginning of 1923 that sound thinking and constructive action prevailed and the country was again started toward a period of unprecedented prosperity— both as to duration of time and as to the extent of its effect.