LABOR’S NEW STATUS

271

EXECRATED PRE-WAR WAGE THEORIES HAVE BECOME
PosT-WAR REALITIES
The free play of the forces of supply and demand, for
instance, in fixing rates of pay of industrial workers, was
formerly looked upon as an expression of the so-called
‘mmutable laws of economics which it would be almost
sacrilegious to attack. Conditions which all too frequently
resulted from the interplay of these forces were in many
cases, it is true, thought to be deplorable, but such conditions
 were condoned or accepted with resignation on the
ground that they were the outgrowth of “inexorable”
economic laws. It would be as futile, it was assumed, to
play with the forces of supply and demand as it would be
to attempt to mitigate the operation of the law of gravitation.
 Within a few years, however, this more-than-acentury-old
 theory has been cast aside. It has been recognized
 that the human element in production should not be
purchased on the same basis as raw materials or capital
equipment. Whatever the condition of the labor supply
might be, it has also been agreed that the minimum wage
paid should be sufficient to maintain the industrial worker
and his family in health and modest comfort.
This has been a concession to society and to humanity.
Industries which may have adhered to the old standards are
now condemned as parasitic, and in a constantly growing
number of States they are restrained by minimum wage
legislation. Moreover, as time has passed, industry itself
has become convinced that to adhere relentlessly to the
forces of supply and demand in fixing wage rates has been
unprofitable and an unwise policy from a purely selfish
standpoint.
The principle of basing wages upon the productive efficiency
 of labor also passed through a similar experience.
Before the war, when this theory was first brought for-