58 = INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
demands as to wages, the representatives of the mine 
workers took practically the same fundamental position as 
the railroad employees did later. They repudiated the 
cost-of-living method of wage adjustments as a wartime 
measure not adapted to the normal conditions of industry, 
and one which, if permanently adopted, would leave the 
laboring classes without hope of economic advancement. 
In addition to asking just and reasonable increases in rates 
of pay to pick-miners, they made their chief argument and 
presentation in behalf of rates requested for dav men, on 
the ground that such rates were essential, under existing 
conditions of work, to enable a mine worker to earn a 
“living-wage” or to support himself and his family on a 
minimum level of health and modest comfort.? 
Tue “HeaLTH AND DECENCY’ BUDGET oF THE UNITED 
STATES DEPARTMENT OF L.ABOR 
In advocating the “living wage” principle, the represen- 
tatives of the labor organizations, as might be expected, 
relied upon past precedents, such as the Seattle Street 
Railways and the Packing House Awards of 1917-1918, 
and also submitted budgetary studies which had previously 
been prepared, such as the Seattle and San Francisco 
budgets of 1917, as well as those prepared by Professor 
William F. Ogburn for the consideration of the National 
War Labor Board in the year 1918. 
Soon after the close of the war, in connection with the 
adjustment of Government employees’ salaries by a Con- 
gressional Committee on Reclassification, the United States 
Bureau of Labor Statistics was requested to prepare a 
budgetary study on the basis of “minimum health and 
I ————————————————— 
1 Proceedings Before the United States Bituminous Coal Commission, Wash- 
ington, Department of the Interior, 1920.