em arise in
whole or part from a shifting and conflict of ideas about various other
aspects of the industrial order. It is possible, however, to
concentrate attention upon those conflicts which center around the
settlement of wages.

There is a quick and somewhat tumultuous stream of investigation
directed to the invention and formulation of principles which could be
used as a basis of settlement of wage controversies. In various
countries such principles have been formally set forth and used. The
awards of the War Labor Board are an example of their imperfect
application. In the Industrial Court of the Commonwealth of Australia we
have an example of the consistent use of one set of wage principles. The
material that has arisen out of this process of discussion and
experimentation is of the utmost value to any one endeavoring to work
out a wage policy for industrial peace in the United States. It forms a
body of doctrines. It gives evidence both as to the chief subjects of
wage controversy, and indicates the suitability or the shortcomings of
many of the principles or doctrines that might be proposed. Thus in any
investigation of principles of wage settlement--with a view to
industrial peace--we are not without the guidance of experience.

This experience consists, firstly, of the principles worked out and
applied in the decisions and orders of the courts or boards which have
served as agents of wage settlement in the United States, England,
Canada and the Australian dominions. Of almost equal value is the
material growing out of those great industrial conflicts of recent
years, in which claims have been put forward and agreement has been
sought on the basis of some definite theory of wages. Such, for example,
is the material prepared and presented in the course of the railway wage
arbitrations in the United States and England. Such also is the evidence
and material presented in the course of the inquiry recently held in
Great Britain upon the wages of transport workers.

2.--It should be understood that the principles which have been used in
wage settlements in the past were not ideal solutions. That is to say
they were not arrived at solely by the use of reason, directed to the
discovery of what is just and what is for the general good. The
situation has been rather that described by Mr. Squires, when he writes:
"Too often in the past arbitration has followed the line of least
resistance. With much unction, the l