64 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
stated that advances in living costs would permit only a 
14 per cent. increase in rates of pay, but they had put this 
method aside, and, proceeding on the basis of the living- 
wage principle, had granted a general increase in wages 
of 31 per cent. 
The chairman of this Commission, Mr. Robinson, of 
California, had been a member of the American delegation 
to the Peace Conference at Paris, and a member of the 
committee which had assisted in framing the principles 
and standards of the International Labor Office of the 
League of Nations. It was undoubtedly this experience 
which influenced his attitude and, in turn, that of the 
Commission. 
Tue UNITED STATES ANTHRACITE COAL 
Mining COMMISSION 
A board of arbitration appointed by President Wilson, 
as the result of an agreement between the operators and 
mine workers, and designated as the Anthracite Coal 
Mining Commission, also convened about six months after 
the Bituminous Coal Commission had made its award, to 
pass upon differences then existing as to wages and work- 
ing conditions in the anthracite coal-mining region. 
More elaborate and exhaustive arguments and exhibits 
were presented by the representatives of both operators 
and mine workers than had been the case in the previous 
soft-coal arbitration. Especial emphasis was placed on the 
“living wage” claim by the mine workers in these presen- 
tations. They also put forward in very complete form the 
justification of a higher wage on the basis of “increased 
productive efficiency,” which marked the first instance of 
the use of this principle in post-war adjustments. They 
claimed too that both consumers and mine workers were