nti

nity; artificial barriers. All these contradictory to assumptions behind theory of general rate of wages.-Section 4. Trade unions another factor in the formation of relatively separate groups. Indirect effects in opposite direction.-Section 5. Each of these groups has a relatively independent economi

he maintenance of relatively separate groups of wage earners, and

either as horizontal groups (having reference to their position in the scale of skill, or of society) or as vertical groups (having reference to their separation by industries). For the position of certain groups may be due both to the influence of those forces which bring about horizontal divisions, and of thos

t of steps of unequal breadth, some of them being so broad as to act as landing stages." "Or even better still," he writes, "we may picture to ourselves two flights of stairs, one representing the 'h

ple, barriers of custom or on vested right may limit the field of employment for women. This would tend to establish one level of earnings for women, and a different

e characteristics of the relatively separate gro

roups there are some which if they stood alone would merely mo

both material and psychological, such as are involved in the shifting of a family from the city in which it has long been established.[31] There are, also, the handicaps and hazards attached to the learning of a new job or trade even though the new job holds out hopes of considerably better wages than the old one. All such facts as these-for but a few examples h

rlying the theory of a general rate of wages were fulfilled in fact. Prof. Taussig has expressed this well. "What would be the differences in wages, and to how great an extent would groups and classes persist, if all had the same opportunities, and if choice of occupation were in so far perfectly free? Would wages then differ only so far as they might be affected by attractiveness, risk, and other causes of equalizing variations? Would coarse manual labor, for instance, then receive a reward nearly as high as any other labor, nay, conceivably (since the work is dirty and disagreeable) higher than any other? Would the soft-handed occupations lose entirely the advantages in pay which they now commonly have? The answer must depend on our view as to the limitation of natural abilities. It is c

inequality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity in the way of education and training, and in the way of healthy and strengthening environment would hav

itants to rise in the industrial scale. They could not possibly make the same use of the common opportunities-even if their natural ability were on a par with those of the older inhabitants. Furthermore, the rapid growth of our great cities and the accompanying social changes, the growth in the size of the average industrial enterprise, and the progress of standardiz

yed, give no preparation and training for the further stages of life and work; and the

he barriers of race and religion, which have affected the flow of labor between different industries. Lastly, there is the barrier of color, which has prevented the negroes from developing their natural ability. These barriers may be

various unions to merge or act together, if these conditions are well fulfilled between them. G. D. H. Cole has given a case in point. "Clearly the ease with which an industrial union can come into being depends upon the sharpness of the distinction between the skilled and unskilled in the industry concerned. Thus in the mining and textile industries, as we have already noted, there is no very sharp distinction between the two classes of workers. In mining, the boy who

. The limits of particular trade unions have sometimes been set by an accident of time or place; by some episode in union history. The internal politics of the union movement has been the decisive fac

ial welfare of the group and for such wider purposes as the group may agree upon. The chief peaceful method of unionism is collective bargaining; its chief combative method is the strike. Labor unionism is a factor in the formation of relatively separate gro

lation or silent obstruction. Such instances are less important than formerly in all probability. On occasion unions may even play a part in determining the field of employment for their members. Thus G. D. H. Cole points out that in England the trade unions do not recognize "differences between skilled and less skilled workers as demarcation disputes, and do not recognize the right of unskilled workers to raise such cases against skilled unions. In fact, the skilled unions virtually claim the right to do such work as they think fi

trade union movement upon free and compulsory education, and the raising of the age of entry into industry. Such, also, is its advocacy of social legislation which is aimed to give more nearly equal opportunity to the lowest grades of industrial workers. Or, to take a third example, such is the result of the aid given by the skilled trade

arners is a sufficiently independent process to make it necessary to account for it as such. The various groups of wage earners have relatively separate economic careers so to speak. The economic fortune of each group is not settled merely as part of one general process, though the economic fortunes

s. How are the differences between the level of earnings o

ps may be put into two sets. First, those factors in regard to which each group stands al

and through which the facts of relative plenty or scarcity work out their effect in the distributive result have already been examined. If the numbers in any group of wage earners are high relative to the uses in which the employment of the members of that group results in a con

der discussion. Every human quality plays its part in the actual processes and negotiations by which the wages of the various groups of wage earners are settled. The outcome de

labor for another type or group are more extensive and numerous than the opportunities for the substitution of one agent of production for another. And this fact limits the differences of wage levels that may arise betw

group stands alone. The second set-those which arise out of the

ductors in railway transportation-far from being detrimental, may in the long run, be beneficial to the interests of the unorganized and low paid workmen. There is a tendency among the employees to keep a close watch on the wages paid to other groups of their fellow workmen, and the differential between their wage and that of some other grade of employment is jealously guarded. Thus on the railways, wage increases usually advance in cycles, an advance to engineers being followed at a close interval by an equivalent advance to firemen, conductors and trainmen. Existing differentials are more jealously maintained among the train service employees than among other r

legislation for unskilled female labor; or again, such instances as the occurrence after the panic of 1907, when various organized groups of wage earners made common cause

rate groups or classes of labor. The actually existing differences of earnings between differe

called "differentials." An effort has been made to explain their causes. Several pr

resent, a large variety of actual forces; some of which can only be changed slowly and with much effort, as, for example, the relative plenty of the lowest grades

m. For such adjectives inevitably suggest that the condition to which they are applied corresponds to a set of facts from which divergence ca

. On the other hand, whatever revisions are undertaken should rest upon a knowledge of the forces which have established existing differentials. The policy of the South Australian Industrial Court, as expressed by its President, would seem to be a practical ap

TNO

nciples of Economics"

scope of its resources, and acting in response to the opportunities which are offered, either in centers where urban industries may be more rapidly expanding, in agriculture or in mining the mobility of labor is unusually great. In fields of employment that are well known as centers towards which great numbers of foreigners drift; in which much of

ples of Economics" (Revised

"Introduction to Tra

"Introduction to Tra

les of Political Economy," entitled "Of the differences of wages in different employments." Book II, Chapter XIV, concludes: "Consequently the wages of eac

e also account in Lord Askwith's "Industrial Problems and Disputes" of the infl

8-19), S. Aust. Ind. Report