he application
of any other principles intended to keep the wage levels in different
industries or occupations in relation to each other. Standardization
will be, so to speak, an initial stage of policy to be gone through
before any other stages are entered upon. In this initial stage, the
principal data that should be taken into consideration when fixing the
level of standardization for any occupation is the actually existing
variety of wage rates for that occupation. Where in the scale of
actually existing rates the level of standardization is set must be a
matter of judgment and compromise. That level of standardization should
be chosen, which it is believed will produce more good and less harm
than any other level that might be chosen. Or in other words, the level
of standardization should be determined by a balance of the interests
involved--that point being chosen at which, it is judged, the most
favorable balance is established.

There is current, indeed, one doctrine of standardization which holds
that there is but one satisfactory level of standardization for an
occupation in which wages have been hitherto unstandardized. That
doctrine, crudely stated, is that the standard wage for the work in
question should be the highest of the unstandardized wages.[109] That
doctrine is called "standardization upward."

If the suggested test is sound, it cannot be admitted that the doctrine
of standardization upward is always valid. For there is no reason to
believe that the level of the highest of the hitherto unstandardized
rates is, of necessity, the one at which the most favorable balance of
interests is established. In many cases there may be a presumption to
that effect--if the doctrine is reasonably interpreted. That is to say,
if it is taken to mean the higher range of wages, rather than the
highest single wage. That presumption arises from the fact that, unless
there is evidence to the contrary, the higher range of unstandardized
wages indicates what wages may be enforced throughout the occupation
without causing great disturbance and unemployment. The circumstances
which would govern the correctness of this presumption are many and have
already been discussed.[110] The actual range of difference between the
various wage rates being paid for the same occupation in different
enterprises should be given importance in the judgment as to whether
standardization should take place at the level of the higher range of
wa