LABOR’S NEW STATUS 
285 
A ProrosED METHOD OF WAGE ADJUSTMENT 
It is apparent that any general plan for the readjustment 
of wages in industry must begin with the lowest group of 
industrial workers, and from this starting point work up- 
ward in the scale of occupations. This is necessary be- 
cause the first essential step toward the accomplishment of 
real cooperation and productive efficiency is to place the 
lowest grade of workers upon a basis where they can de- 
velop both the will and the qualifications for cooperation. 
[t would also be sound policy from a human and social 
standpoint. Moreover, it would be exceedingly profitable 
to industry itself thus to work out reasonable advances in 
rates of pay to a multitude of workers who would actually 
and potentially become a great reservoir of increased pur- 
chasing and consuming power. 
After the principles and methods have been laid down 
upon which to develop within a reasonable time adequate 
standards of compensation for unskilled and semi-skilled 
workers, the next step should consist in the readjustment 
of the existing differentials—above rates of pay for com- 
mon labor—which have been heretofore established on the 
grounds of skill, hazard, and responsibility. It would be 
hardly possible at once to decide upon a policy of main- 
laining pre-existing differentials for those in the higher 
groups of labor, after the basic rates for unskilled em- 
ployees had been radically increased. Drastic changes and 
dislocations would have to be avoided. All the relevant cir- 
cumstances surrounding each specific trade or industry 
would have to be considered. The ultimate goal to be 
aimed at, however, would be the establishment of basic 
rates for unskilled and semi-skilled workers adequate for 
the maintenance of living standards of health, modest 
comfort, and savings, as shown by sound budgetary studies, 
and above these minimum rates the fixing of pre-existing