MODERN MEDIEVALISM 57 



unionist struggles for fair and living wages. Even the individualistic 

 American farmers are earnestly striving to fix " fair " prices for their 

 wheat, oats, corn, tobacco and other crops. Australia attempts to make 

 the application of a protective tariff to a given establishment dependent 

 upon the payment of " fair " wages to the employees of that concern. 

 A Wisconsin commission is industriously placing a valuation upon the 

 physical property of the public utilities corporations of that state, in 

 order that " reasonable " rates may be promulgated by that official body. 

 In this manner, the ground is being rapidly cut from under the com- 

 petitive basis of price regulation. Our commercial edifice still rests on 

 this substructure ; but the foundation walls are crumbling, and ominous 

 cracks which presage decay and demolition are appearing in the struc- 

 ture. Society is impregnated with the idea that competition is no 

 longer efficient and sufficient as a guide. From all sections of the 

 country come reports of rate commissions, boards of arbitration, gentle- 

 men's agreements, combinations and legal actions against restraint 

 of trade. 



With the narrowing of the competitive sphere the question as to 

 what is a just, accurate and scientific standard of measurement for 

 wages, prices and rates becomes increasingly important; and, at the 

 same time, it becomes more difficult to solve because the basis of com- 

 petitive rates, prices and wages is being undermined. In fact, if no 

 standard can be found, socialism or anarchy seem to be the only alterna- 

 tives. Much of the discussion and theorizing as to the respective rights 

 of labor and capital is worthless because either free competition is 

 assumed, or reference is made to prices or wages paid in the past; or 

 some arbitrary standard is postulated which has no reality outside the 

 personal desires of certain individuals or classes. 



No court of arbitration or board of conciliation has as yet offered 

 any definite and scientific formula by means of which disputes as to 

 wages or conditions of labor may be adjusted. The findings of that 

 famous board of arbitration, the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, 

 merely offered a compromise; the commission did not dig down to the 

 roots of the difficulty. Neither did an anxious public receive any exact 

 data or the formulation of any definite method of procedure which 

 might be used as a basis for the work of future boards. A peace was 

 patched up, and the mines were opened. The members of the strike 

 commission honestly and faithfully tried to take into account the phys- 

 ical, social and economic conditions then existing in the anthracite 

 district. They investigated the home and working environment of the 

 miner; his condition was compared with that of other workers. Yet 

 after all, the principal value of this investigation consisted in empha- 

 sizing the rights of the general public. The decisions of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission and of the various state railway and public 

 utilities commissions as to reasonable rates are invariably determined 

 by reference to profits received upon investments in competitive busi- 



