The new industrial revolution and wages

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804651486

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-193069

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Lauck, William Jett http://d-nb.info/gnd/173237126

Title:: The new industrial revolution and wages

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Funk & Wagnalls

Year of publication:: 1929

Scope:: ix, 308 S.; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter II. Pre-war principles and methods

Collection:: Economics Books

CHAPTER II PRE-WAR PRINCIPLES AND METHODS Prior to the World War, thought and practise relative to the determination of wages in the United States were entirely different from the situation at the present time. Small progress had been made beyond the century-old “Iron Law of Wages” as originally worked out by the English classical economists. With the exception of the general theory of “Supply and Demand,” there were in practise no definite principles or accepted standards for the determination of wage rates. Labor, in relation to its compensation, in other words, was generally—altho per- haps unconsciously—viewed as a commodity whose value was determined by the interplay of the forces of supply and demand. Altho such a conception as to fixing the price of labor would not always be acknowledged or openly avowed, nevertheless, as a matter of practise, it was a rule subconsciously present and usually followed. Labor’s value was generally looked upon and determined in the same way as that of purely physical commodities, such as wheat, coal, iron, textiles and steel products. Very little attention, in a practical way, had been given prior to 1914 to the human and ethical elements in the wage problem. TrHE So-CaLLED “LAW” oF SupPLY AND DEMAND From this view-point, the rate of pay to industrial workers at any time was to be determined by placing the supply of labor over against the demand for labor. The going price for labor was the result. In the event of any dislocation to or collapse in industry, the wage-earners were the residual sufferers. The evils arising from unre-

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