10 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
arbitration, no fundamental principles were evolved or 
generally accepted prior to the World War. In arbitra- 
tion proceedings, stress was placed by labor upon the 
arduousness of their work, or, in other words, upon the 
actual physical sacrifices they were forced to make, and 
the physical conditions under which their occupations 
required them to toil. The groups above the unskilled and 
semi-skilled workers generally demanded differentials over 
basic rates of pay according to the skill, hazard, and respon- 
sibilities of their duties. These factors were, as a rule, 
recognized and given consideration. The potent influence 
in transmitting them into concrete terms of compensation, 
however, was usually dependent upon the relative degree 
of organization present and of the economic results which 
could be expected from either party to the case, if there 
was a failure to grant satisfactory rates of pay. Guiding 
principles were given scant, if any, consideration. Arbi- 
tration awards were almost without exception an irrational 
compromise of the conflicting claims of the parties to a 
controversy, popularly described as “splitting the dif- 
ferences.” 
Cost oF Living as A Factor 18 WacGe-FIxing 
After the year 1900, when prices began generally to 
rise, “cost of living” developed as an active factor in wage- 
fixation. Compilations of changes in prices of articles 
entering into the consumption of the wage-earning classes 
were made, and emphasis was placed by labor representa- 
tives upon the steady decline in the purchasing power of 
money wages. This tendency became increasingly appar- 
ent in negotiations and controversies over wages in all 
branches of mining and manufacturing. It was also 
brought prominently to the fore-front during the period 
of 1910-1915 in formal wage arbitrations between the rail-