THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 215 
already varying degrees of organisation among the workers and this may 
be expected to increase. So far as the workers employed in some of the 
leading industries are concerned, the main need would appear to be the 
adoption of common standards of payment for similar classes of work. 
We are satisfied that a larger measure of uniformity can be achieved in 
certain industries without prejudice to their economic position and, at 
the same time, a higher wage level can be secured to some of the lowest 
paid classes. 
Position in Cotton Mills. 
This is a matter which has already received some examination 
in the cotton textile industry. The question was considered by the 
Bombay Industrial Disputes Committee in 1992 and again by the Textile 
Tariff Board in 1927. The Industrial Disputes Committee declared that 
“ employers’ associations have not evolved a standard scale of wages, 
and individual employers are usually ignorant of how their rates com- 
pare with the wages given by others ” and that “ the new uncorrelated 
raising of wages is almost invariably seized upon as a grievance in other 
factories of the same class.” Later the Textile Tariff Board recom- 
mended to the Millowners’ Association the adoption of a system of stan- 
dardised wages for the same classes of work as between mill and mill. 
The Association responded to this suggestion and in 1928 evolved a 
standardisation scheme which was subsequently examined in detail by 
the Bombay Strike Enquiry Committee of 1928-29. The Association 
proposed to introduce their scheme in the autumn of 1929, but no further 
developments along these lines have so far taken place. We are aware 
of the difficulties in the way of the inauguration of a system of 
standardised wages at the present time. Nevertheless we urge that 
every effort be made to put this policy into operation at the earliest 
possible moment 
Position in Jute Industry. 
i The jute industry has been more fortunate than the cotton 
industry as regards the prevalence of industrial unrest and the reper- 
cussion of political factors upon stability. As a result, it has escap- 
ed the series of investigations by statutory and other bodies to 
which its sister industry has been subjected in the last few years. This 
May in part account for the fact that, although the jute industry, 
on account of fewer variations in the classes of goods manufac- 
bured and the degree of comfort in the factory, is a far easier field for 
an attempt at standardisation than the cotton industry, no serious 
consideration has hitherto been given to the matter. The Indian Jute 
Mills Association declared the existing variations in wages to depend 
upon the differences in cost of living in different jute manufacturing areas. 
The evidence of the Bengal Government, however, states ““ Perhaps in 
no industry in the world, situated in such a circumscribed area, 1s the 
Wage position more inchoate. The mills, grouped under different manag- 
Ing agents, work under wage systems which have developed many local 
diosynerasies during the long or short vears of their existence. Even