86 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
The American trade union movement believes that the 
lives of the working people should be made better with each 
passing day and year. The practise of fixing wages solely 
on the basis of the cost of living is a violation of the whole 
philosophy in progress and civilization and, furthermore, is 
a violation of sound economic theory and is utterly without 
logic or scientific support of any kind. 
The same attitude was taken by labor as to the fixing 
of wage-rates according to the so-called laws of supply 
and demand. This was cogently and briefly expressed in 
an editorial of The American Federationist in 1919, as 
follows 1 
The workers are not interested in which particular eco- 
nomic theory shall be given preference. They have no faith 
in the theory advanced by Adam Smith that wages, like 
everything else, are governed by the law of supply and 
demand, There is at hand too much conclusive evidence that 
the law of supply and demand is not immutable and that it 
readily lends itself to manipulation and control. The wage- 
earners are no longer bewildered by the subtle logic of the 
wage-fund theory advanced by David Ricardo, James Mill 
or John Stuart Mill. No one in this enlightened age would 
attempt to advance this theory as a fitting answer to the 
wage-earners’ yearning and craving for a better and happier 
life. Neither does Labor accept the conclusion advanced by 
La Salle in the so-called “iron law of wages.” 
In addition to and entirely apart from any changes which 
might occur in the price level or in the supply of labor, 
there were certain economic and social factors, according 
to the attitude of labor leaders, that should be carefully 
studied when adjudicating any matter involving wages. 
When prices were stationary, and even when they were 
¢ h y the Li i 
. wing age, in Ame ican Fed bi Nn is F 
1 ‘W VV W 7 eration. t, ebruary, 1919,