THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 209 
anxious not to enter on a field which lies outside our proper functions ; 
but we have been struck by the contrasts presented in industrial and 
commercial organisation. We also found many employers unaware 
of the successful experiments of others in the labour field. Indeed, 
many of our recommendations are no more than the advocacy on a 
gencral scale of those ideas of individual employers which have proved 
successful in application. 
Conception of Fixed Standard. 
We turn now to the most direct method of raising the standard of 
living, namely, the raising of the earnings of the worker. It is necessary 
here to deal with a preliminary objection which was put before 11s on 
more than one occasion and has even found its way into official reports, 
It is urged, and apparently believed by not a few employers, that the 
worker has a fixed standard at which he aims, and that, when he has 
sarned enough to maintain that standard, he ceases to make 
any further effort. This view is frequently coupled with the belief 
that the worker has already attained the standard he desires. If 
this were true, an increase in wage rates would do more harm 
than good, for it would diminish production without benefiting 
she worker financially. On this view, it is only by getting 
she worker to spend his money more wisely that any advance is 
possible. In dealing with a great and varied mass of workers, it is rash 
bo say that such a doctrine is true in respect of none of them. 
very nation can produce men who are satisfied with the barest needs 
and will make no further effort after these are supplied. It must also 
be admitted that ambition is not particularly vigorous with many 
[ndian workers; we return to the causes of this later. But it is not 
difficult to show that the doctrine is not true of the great bulk of Indian 
industrial labour, for it ig contradicted by the facts. If it were true, 
it would be impossible to raise the workers’ standard of living 
except by coercion ; yet there is no doubt that it has in fact risen 
appreciably in recent years. Reference has been made to the lack of 
cost of living index numbers, but there is ample evidence to show 
bhat the level of real wages, particularly in the more organised industries, 
is now appreciably higher than it was ten years ago. Few, even of 
those who hold the belief mentioned, would deny this. The evidence 
of unprejudiced observers regarding improvement in the general 
standard of living and the increase in the level of real wages show 
that the workers’ earnings have risen, 4.e., that the idea of any general 
fixed standard is fallacious. What, is both true and largely responsible 
for this mistaken judgment is that a sudden accretion of income is 
seldom wisely spent ; the worker cannot raise his standard of living 
overnight. Further, as the standard of comfort is improved, there 
1s an intelligible and reasonable tendency to secure some increase in 
leisure at the expense of part of the possible increase in income. We 
ban appreciate the preference of the worker for some remission of toil, 
'r