52 SEVENTEENTH REPORT. 



both valid as you limit their applications and neither theory has 

 universal applications. 



Fourth, the standard of living theory. This theory is prominent 

 in the defense of the minimum wage. The standard is indefinite. 

 Some standards inclnde a few and others many items. With each 

 new agreement the carpenters demand more wages, because they 

 inclnde more items in their standard of living. It is a matter of 

 individual interpretation, which differs as the purchasing power of 

 their wages is greater or smaller than that of the wages in the 

 other trades. The theory means that their wages must make them 

 independent of the employer. If they must ask favors of the em- 

 I^loyer or are unable to withstand a strike, their bargaining power 

 becomes nil. The rate of wage which will give them the necessary 

 independence and keep them in the same class with their associates 

 or other trades is 65 cents per hour at present. 



There is still another group of ideas underlying the carpenters' 

 rules Avhich might be termed a theory of harmony of interest and 

 sacredness of contract. There is a general expression of a certain 

 harmou}' of interest between the employers and employees, which 

 takes the form of mutual interest, as ''when the employer does well 

 we get better wages." This seems to be a watery type of harmony, 

 and grafted on the situation, for most of the journeymen feel that 

 they must take all they get and that the employer's profit is the 

 product of their labor, which custom and laws have given him, and 

 can be regained only by the group effort as expressed in the union. 

 Such expressions as "there is no common basis for judgment on 

 disputes, between employee and employer," "the interest of the em- 

 ployer is ahvays opposed to ours," and the general expression of 

 the struggle, is the basis for doubt as to their sincerity in their 

 formal expressions of an existing harmony of interest. The harmony 

 of interest theory is generally approached through their conception 

 of a contract, which plays such an important role in their activities, 

 and constitutes the instrument with which they aim to force the 

 employer to give them favorable wages and conditions. When it 

 fails to accomplish this end, its sacredness rapidly declines, as is 

 shown by the evidence that the carpenters would break their con- 

 tract with the employers if it involved the establishment of an nn- 

 favorable precedent. One of the officials high in Ihe district council 

 once said to me that should the employers attempt to hire non- 

 union men in the building trades and attempt to establish the 

 precedent of employing non-union men we would break our contract 

 at once. It must not be inferred, however, that the carpenters re- 

 gard their contract obligations lightly. They regard them as an 



