156 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
standpoint of the sound principles of industrial manage- 
ment and of general economics. The conception of the 
standard of living which this basic wage should make pos- 
sible 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 em- 
brace 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 accepta- 
bility, is the level of living provided by the so-called 
“savings wage,” or a wage sufficient for a standard of liv- 
ing 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 con- 
sumption of commodities, and the maintenance of wide- 
spread 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 spe- 
cific occasions arise, the living or savings-wage principle