108 MINIMUM wage LEGISLATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

a system of conciliation and arbitration, achieving compromise
between both points of view.
While wages fixed by wage boards in other countries depend upon
a compromise between three factors—employers, employees, and
public authorities—in the great majority of Russian enterprises
(State owned) they depend on a compromise between the two lastnamed
 groups only—State and employees. With the domination of
the Communist Party over the State as well as over the trade-unions,
there is even, as regards final decision of the supreme authorities,
unity rather than dualism, and the present position does not seem to
be very different from that reported for 1921—fixation of wages
by the party dominant in the State.
Comparing this wage-fixing policy of the Russian State with wagefixing
 systems of other countries, 1t may be noted from the abovecited
 regulations that the main principle of Russian wage policy
is the ability of national production to bear the wage budget. In
Australasia also this same principle is the dominant feature of the
decision of the arbitration courts. Ability of the individual industry
to bear the charges is less important-in Russia, as the various State
lrusts, although maintaining to a certain extent a separate legal existence,
 are yet part of the general system of State production. It
may be noted also that the Russian wage-fixing oka puts more
emphasis on premiums for increase of production than is generally
the case in collective-labor agreements or awards for wage fixation
elsewhere.