40 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
followed, they ‘concluded, that capital and not employees 
had the economic and moral right to the revenue gains, 
or profits, which had accrued from the development of a 
greater productive efficiency. 
The relative claims of the railroads and their engine 
crews, as buttressed by exhaustive exhibits of the operat- 
ing and financial performance of the various companies, 
were not officially recognized in the awards of the arbitra- 
tion boards, especially in the Western arbitration, where 
the supreme effort was made. Very close attention was 
given to the argument and exhibits, and there was extended 
discussion, but the final decisions were compromises with- 
out much regard to evidence, and without passing upon 
the fundamental principles and theories which had been 
advanced. 
These cases, however, marked the beginnings of a new 
era in wage-adjustments. The theories advanced were 
not practically accepted or applied in the period before the 
war, but the seeds of a new idea were sown, much thought 
and agitation was provoked, exceedingly valuable data 
were collected and printed, and an educational movement 
inaugurated which was destined to have undreamed-of 
practical results during the post-war period. 
Tae Situation WHEN WE ENTERED THE WORLD WAR 
Up to the tite, therefore, of our entrance into the World 
War in 1917, there had been no distinct change in thought 
or practise as to old wage theories. The law of supply 
and demand was subconsciously accepted in a general way 
without serious question. Increases in the cost of living 
had also practically been taken into consideration in wage- 
1 “The Arbitral Determination of Railway Wages,” Chapter IV. “Pro- 
ceedings and Exhibits of Eastern Firemen’s Arbitration,” New York, 1913, 
and “Western Engineer’s and Firemen’s Arbitration,” 1915. United States 
Board of Mediation and Conciliation, Washington, D. C. 
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