PRE-WAR PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 11

ways and their engine and train crews under the provisions
of the Newlands Law.?
This factor, however, as a basis for the determination
of wages, as can be seen at once, had no fundamental or
constructive significance. It was a defensive factor and
not a constructive or underlying principle of action. It
assumed that pre-existing wage-standards were satisfactory,
 and its acceptance and application merely implied
that the real wages which had previously been received
should be continued. It carried with it no analysis as to
the adequateness or acceptability of previous standards of
compensation. Under its workings there could be no
actual advance in economic well-being. Its acceptance and
application as a method of wage-adjustment could only
mean that there would be—as compared with past periods
—no loss to wage-earners in purchasing power or in real
income.

STANDARDIZATION OF OCCUPATIONS AND RATES OF PAy
Another prominent factor which also gradually developed
 in pre-war wage-determinations was that of standardization.
 The effort was constantly made by wageearners
 to secure standardized rates in certain occupational
 groups irrespective of local conditions. This tendency
 was especially noticeable in organized trades, as in
the metal and building crafts, and in certain highly organized
 industries, as bituminous coal mining and steam
‘ransportation.
In the case of the coal-mining industry, basic rates of
nay were established by negotiation and agreement in what

1 J. Noble Stockett, “Arbitral Determination of Railway Wages” (Houghon
 Mifflin Company, Boston, 1918), Chapter III—The Increased Cost of
Living. Proceedings of Railway Wage Arbitrations Held under the Auspices
»f the United States Board of Mediation and Conciliation, 1910-1915. Herbert
Feis, “Principles of Wage Settlement,” Chapter IV (H. W. Wilson Company,
New York, 1924).