364 



DISCOVERY 



Rejjeat the process ofton (miourIi, and ymi may obtain 

 enough of these broken atoms to form a weighablc 

 amount of a different substance. In the case of 

 mercury (atomic number 80), you might produce in 

 this way gold (atomic number 79), or perhaps platinum 

 (atomic number 78). 



Professor Rutherford, of Cambridge, has shown that 

 artificial transmutation of one element into another 

 by the method sketched above is possible. In his 

 experiments he used as projectiles the high-speed 

 particles spontaneously emitted by the radio-active 

 element, radium C. These particles consist of atoms 

 of hehum moving with a velocity of some 12,000 miles 

 per second. The atoms struck were those of the 

 ■element nitrogen (atomic number 7). Professor 

 Rutherford showed that from a very small percentage 

 of these atoms, atoms of hydrogen were produced. It 

 is beUeved that these are produced by the rupturing 

 of the nucleus of the nitrogen atom by the high-speed 

 particles of helium. This is the first occasion on which 

 artificial transmutation of one element into another 

 has been successfully carried out. Further work along 

 these lines is, of course, merrily in progress. 



Legal Minimum Wages 



By Douglas Knoop, M.A. 



Pro/essorot Itcoiwmics in Ihe Univcrsihj of ShffT'etil 

 I 



The whole problem of wages is very much to the fore 

 at the present time, but it is only with one aspect of 

 the problem that I am immediately concerned. In 

 order, however, that the question of legal minimum 

 wages may be seen in its proper perspective, it will 

 be necessary to touch briefly on the larger questions 

 of {a) the state regulation of wages in general, and 

 (6) wages settlements by conciliation and arbitration. 

 At the outset I wish to make clear what is under- 

 stood by " legal minimum wages." The expression 

 implies two things : (i) that rates of wages have been 

 fixed by Parliament, or by some body or person 

 charged with that duty by Act of Parliament, and 

 (2) that any employer paying lower rates than those 

 legally fixed is liable to a penalty in accordance with 

 an Act of Parliament. A legal minimum rate may be 

 contrasted with {a) a standard rate, i.e. a rate normally 

 paid in a particular occupation, and {b} a maximum 

 rate, i.e. a rate which may not be exceeded under 

 penalty. A standard rate is commonly fixed by agree- 

 ment between organisations of employers and workers. 



or by arbitration ; thus the 2s. 5^. per hour paid to 

 plumbers in Liverpool may be quoted as an illustration 

 of a standard rate. Maximum rates existed long before 

 standard rates or minimum rates were thought of, but 

 the last Act regulating the subject was repealed about 

 100 years ago. The wages assessments issued by the 

 Justices of the Peace under the Statute of Apprentices, 

 1563, all represented cases of legal maximum wages. 

 The penalty for giving wages higher than the rate was 

 ten days' imprisonment and a fine of £5 ; the penalty 

 for receiving wages higher than the rate was twenty-one 

 days' imprisonment. A Warwickshire Wages Assess- 

 ment in 1738 fixed the rate for a mason in summer at 

 lod. a day with drink, and at is. a day without drink. 

 The lod. and the is. are illustrations of legal maximum 

 wages. 



The conception of a legal minimum wage, dissociated 

 entirely from any legal maximum wage, is quite 

 modern. It w'as suggested as a means of dealing with 

 the problem of " sweated " labour. The mere pittances 

 paid to certain classes of labour, especially to women, 

 more particularly those working at home, or emploj-ed 

 by sub-contractors, had become sufficiently recognised 

 as a public scandal to cause the Government to move 

 in the first decade of the present century. In 1907 a 

 commissioner was sent to Australia to investigate the 

 Wages Boards established there, and in 190S the House 

 of Commons appointed a Select Committee on Home 

 Work. It was on the recommendation of this Com- 

 mittee that the Trade Boards Act, 1909, was passed. 



The Act might be applied to any specified trade if 

 the rate of wages prevailing in any branch of the trade 

 was exceptionally low as compared with that of other 

 employments. At the outset four trades were covered 

 by the Act : tailoring, paper-box making, lace finishing, 

 and chain-making. In 1913 linen and cotton em- 

 broidery, hollow-ware making, sugar confectionery and 

 food preserxdng, and tin-box making were brought 

 under the Act. The number of workers affected in 

 these eight trades was about 400,000. One of the 

 worst cases of an exceptionally low-wage occupation, 

 viz. agriculture, was not pro\-ided for until 1917, when 

 an Agricultural Wages Board, with power to fi.x legal 

 minimum wages, was established under the Corn Pro- 

 duction Act, 1917. 



A new aspect of the problem of legal minimum 

 wages dates from 1918, when a new Trade Boards Act 

 was passed, which could be applied by the Minister 

 of Labour to any specified trade in which no adequate 

 machinery existed for the effective regulation of wages 

 throughout the trade. In other words, whilst the 

 Trade Boards Act, 1909, applied to " sweated " trades, 

 the Trade Boards Act, 1918, applies to badly organised 

 trades. The Minister of Labour has made, and is 

 making, considerable use of his powers under the new 



