CHAPTER 16—ROLE OF MINIMUM WAGE IN
GENERAL PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE

ri YHE law of supply and demand, supplemented by industrial war,
I’ determines wages in most countries. Force rules in the wages
field, as it does in the competition of industries or in the
relation of States.
Minimum wage legislation substitutes scientific consideration of
the worker’s essential needs, as well as of the resources of industry,
IF he wasteful struggle between these elements and the supremacy
of force.
The endeavors of its advocates for order and peace in the field of
distribution of the product of labor have a striking parallel in the
field of production of wealth—the endeavor for order and peace in
industry and for its well-planned control, and the endeavor to
run industry for satisfying consumers’ needs instead of for individual
 profit and to coordinate it scientifically so as not to waste
wealth in strife. Both endeavors have their parallel in the international
 field—the efforts for order and peace, for coordinating the
interests of the nations, to satisfy each of them to the best of the
technical and political ability available, and to direct them by the
League of Nations, instead of wasting their resources in strife for
obtaining particular advantages.
Coordination of parties paying and of parties receiving wages,
coordination of industries, and coordination of nations—all endeavor
to substitute a centralized control guided by science and equity
for strife and force, and to do away with the losses from strife
and thereby to give to all concerned a more equitable share in the
increased common resources.

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