ACCEPTANCE OF NEW THEORY 0g cerned with the adjustment of wages and working con- ditions. The employer and employee groups, however, could not come to an agreement upon a principle for col- lective bargaining, and the work of the Conference came to naught. Shortly thereafter, President Wilson called a second Conference composed entirely of representatives of the public. William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor, was designated Chairman and Herbert Hoover, later Secre- tary of Commerce, Vice-Chairman.! This Conference was very successful. In its Report to the President, which set forth in a comprehensive form both principles and machinery for the judicial settlement of industrial disputes, the following recommendation was made in connection with the “living wage” principle.? Considered from the standpoint of public interest, it is fun- damental that the basic wage of all employees should be adequate to maintain the employee and his family in reason- able comfort, and with adequate opportunity for the education of his children. When the wages of any group fall below this standard for any length of time, the situation becomes dangerous to the well-being of the state. No country that seeks to protect its citizens from the unnecessary ravages of disease, degeneration and dangerous discontent, can con- sistently let the unhampered play of opposing forces result in the suppression of wages below a decent subsistence level, " The distinguished public personnel of the Conference was: Martin H. Glynn Oscar S. Straus - Thomas W. Gregory William O. Thompson Richard Hooker Henry C. Stuart Stanley King Frank W. Taussig samuel W, McCall Henry J. Waters Henry M. Robinson George W., Wickersham fulius Rosenwald Owen D. Young Seorge T. Slade Willard E. Hotchkiss Henry R. Seager (Executive Secretaries) 2 Report of the President’s Industrial Conference, Washington, Govern. ment Printing Office, 1920, p. 37.