THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 215
already varying degrees of organisation among the workers and this may
be expected to increase. So far as the workers employed in some of the
leading industries are concerned, the main need would appear to be the
adoption of common standards of payment for similar classes of work.
We are satisfied that a larger measure of uniformity can be achieved in
certain industries without prejudice to their economic position and, at
the same time, a higher wage level can be secured to some of the lowest
paid classes.
Position in Cotton Mills.
This is a matter which has already received some examination
in the cotton textile industry. The question was considered by the
Bombay Industrial Disputes Committee in 1992 and again by the Textile
Tariff Board in 1927. The Industrial Disputes Committee declared that
“ employers’ associations have not evolved a standard scale of wages,
and individual employers are usually ignorant of how their rates com-
pare with the wages given by others ” and that “ the new uncorrelated
raising of wages is almost invariably seized upon as a grievance in other
factories of the same class.” Later the Textile Tariff Board recom-
mended to the Millowners’ Association the adoption of a system of stan-
dardised wages for the same classes of work as between mill and mill.
The Association responded to this suggestion and in 1928 evolved a
standardisation scheme which was subsequently examined in detail by
the Bombay Strike Enquiry Committee of 1928-29. The Association
proposed to introduce their scheme in the autumn of 1929, but no further
developments along these lines have so far taken place. We are aware
of the difficulties in the way of the inauguration of a system of
standardised wages at the present time. Nevertheless we urge that
every effort be made to put this policy into operation at the earliest
possible moment
Position in Jute Industry.
i The jute industry has been more fortunate than the cotton
industry as regards the prevalence of industrial unrest and the reper-
cussion of political factors upon stability. As a result, it has escap-
ed the series of investigations by statutory and other bodies to
which its sister industry has been subjected in the last few years. This
May in part account for the fact that, although the jute industry,
on account of fewer variations in the classes of goods manufac-
bured and the degree of comfort in the factory, is a far easier field for
an attempt at standardisation than the cotton industry, no serious
consideration has hitherto been given to the matter. The Indian Jute
Mills Association declared the existing variations in wages to depend
upon the differences in cost of living in different jute manufacturing areas.
The evidence of the Bengal Government, however, states ““ Perhaps in
no industry in the world, situated in such a circumscribed area, 1s the
Wage position more inchoate. The mills, grouped under different manag-
Ing agents, work under wage systems which have developed many local
diosynerasies during the long or short vears of their existence. Even