368 



DISCOVERY 



probably to be made so to adjust women's wages to 

 men's wages, as not to offer any strong inducement to 

 employers to substitute either women for men or men 

 for women. 



In view of all these conflicting considerations and 

 possibilities, it must be obvious to everyone that only 

 a body of supermen could fix wages which would be 

 absolutely fair to all parties concerned. A Trade 

 Board is probably justified in considering that it has 

 done its work well if it is able to reach a settlement 

 which is acceptable to a majority of the employers 

 and workers in the trade. Experience seems to show 

 that even a proposal which has met with strong 

 opposition inside a Board may meet with a fairly good 

 reception from employers and workers outside the 

 Board. This provides at least some comfort to the 

 " appointed members " when they are obliged to vote. 



IV 

 In conclusion, it may be asked whether or not a 

 great extension of the system of fixing legal minimum 

 wages is desirable. Some would undoubtedly prefer 

 to restrict the system to " sweated " industries, but 

 as the Minister of Labour is busily engaged in extending 

 the system, it hardly seems the best moment to discuss 

 on first principles whether the policy is wise or not. 

 For the time being, we have to accept the large 

 increase in the number of trades covered by Trade 

 Boards as an accomplished fact. In another year or 

 two, enough information concerning the working of 

 the new Trade Boards may be available to enable a 

 fairly reliable opinion to be formed as to the wisdom 

 of the policy. But one thing seems fairly certain : a 

 very wide or universal extension of the system of legal 

 minimum wages, though it may lead to the removal 

 of some wages anomalies, will not prove a panacea 

 for the most serious economic ills from which we are 

 at present suffering. If the money incomes of the 

 whole, or of the great bulk, of the population were 

 doubled to-morrow, nobody would be any better off, 

 as the real income of the country, the goods and 

 ser\dces available for purchase, would remain un- 

 changed. If increased money incomes were secured 

 for a small section of the community, then the position 

 of that section would be improved — at the expense of 

 the rest of the community. If the object is to benefit 

 the great bulk, or the whole, of the community, the 

 fundamental problem is how to increase the national 

 output of goods and services, which constitute the real 

 income of the country. Without this, no rise in the 

 general standard of living would appear to be possible. 

 Whether a wide extension of Trade Boards can help 

 in increasing the national output experience alone can 

 show. 



Temporary Stars 



By Donald W. Horner, F.K.A.S. 



The recent discovery by Mr. W. F. Denning, F.R.A.S., 

 of Bristol, on August 20, 1920, of a new star in the 

 constellation of Cygnus has caused some unusual 

 interest to be taken in novx in general, and Nova 

 Cygni in particular, so that it may be well to give 

 a short resume of the matter in the pages of Discovery. 

 The new star discovered' this year by Mr. Denning 

 was at that time in the northern region of Cygnus, 

 at R.A.' igh. 56m. 24s. and declination N. 53° 24'. 

 The star, which was when first seen about 3^ magnitude, 

 was increasing in brightness, and reached a maximum 

 on August 24, when it was of the 18 magnitude,' as 

 observed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. A 

 decline in lustre then occurred, so that by the end 

 of August the magnitude was only 4J, and by Sep- 

 tember 14 it had fallen to 5 J, and was only faintly 

 visible to the naked eye. 



It is still being observed at the time of writing 

 (October 1920) at all the chief obser^-atories in England 

 and abroad, and has aroused a remarkable extent of 

 interest. In the years of the future it will continue 

 to be examined as a small telescopic star, or possibly 

 a nebula, for some of these novs apparently display 

 a nebulous appearance in their later stages. 



New stars shone out in Cygnus on two occasions 

 in past history, namely in August 1600 and in No- 

 vember 1876. 



It is interesting to recall in this connection that the 

 first authenticated appearance of a new, or temporary, 

 star was in 134 B.C., and this star is said to have 

 burst out quite suddenly in the heavens with a bril- 

 liancy sufficient to render it \'isible in broad daylight 

 This star attracted the attention of Hipparchus, 

 and caused him to make a catalogue of the stars (the 

 first of its kind), with the object of enabling future 

 astronomers to trace with ease and certainty subse- 

 quent apparitions of new stars. 



In ancient times there seems to have been some 

 confusion existing in the minds of the astronomers of 

 those days between new stars and comets, and some- 

 times an appearance of the former object is mentioned 

 when it is fairly ob\'ious that the latter was the actual 

 phenomenon witnessed. 



It seems reasonably certain, however, that the 

 apparition of 134 B.C., and also a new star which 

 appeared in the constellation of Cassiopeia in 1572, 

 were really novx and not comets. The latter star would 



' Right Ascension 



' The numbers expressing magnitudes decrease as the 

 magnitude of the star increases. 



