156 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES

standpoint of the sound principles of industrial management
 and of general economics. The conception of the
standard of living which this basic wage should make possible
 has advanced through the years from a level of bare
subsistence of the wage-earner and his family to the
recently advocated “cultural” standard, which would embrace
 not only physical and social requirements, but also
cultural needs, together with the highest ideals of economic
freedom. Practically, the minimum standard which has
been reached at this time, or the point of actual acceptability,
 is the level of living provided by the so-called
“savings wage,” or a wage sufficient for a standard of living
 of minimum health and comfort for the wage-earner
and his family, with the added provision for reasonable
savings as a protection against sickness, accident, old age,
and other contingencies of life.
The living or savings-wage movement has been, in a
general way, absorbed during the past five years by the
general acceptance in the United States of the so-called
productive efficiency theory of wage payments, which
would stimulate indefinite wage advances so long as labor
costs of production are reduced and reasonable margins
of profits sustained. The adoption of this principle has
also been further supported by the theory that high rates
of pay make for increased purchasing power, greater consumption
 of commodities, and the maintenance of widespread
 prosperity. As industry has proceeded under this
new and enlightened program, wage earners have received
general advances in their rates of compensation, until their
earnings now in many instances represent unprecedented
levels. As this process continues, the need will inevitably
arise for a decision as to what the basic rates of pay for
those lowest in the industrial scale should be. When specific
 occasions arise, the living or savings-wage principle