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 condi- 
tions 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 gravita- 
tion. Within a few years, however, this more-than-a- 
century-old theory has been cast aside. It has been recog- 
nized 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 effi- 
ciency of labor also passed through a similar experience. 
Before the war, when this theory was first brought for-