289] COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 15/ 



in their automatic action. They admit of adaptation,** as 

 we have seen, to diversified situations; and as Professor 

 Munro has stated, they " give a steadiness " to trade and to 

 wages.*^ Employers will avail themselves of fresh open- 

 ings with more vigorous enterprise, if freed from the appre- 

 hension of a sudden and forcible cessation of industry. W. 

 S. Jevons maintains, somewhat extravagantly, that the slid- 

 ing scale, along with the system of arbitration, is to be 

 regarded as a '" stepping stone to some still sounder method 

 of partnership and participation in profits which a future 

 generation will certainly enjoy."*^ 



The chief difficulty in arranging a sliding scale is in fix- 

 ing upon a basis. In both Great Britain and the United 

 States, selling prices have been adopted by common consent 

 as the suitable basis, and the variations in wages are to 

 follow the fluctuations in prices. In the manufactured 

 iron trade of the north of England, sliding scales were 

 adopted on four occasions, based on the selling prices of 

 iron, and each time they were abandoned. This was the 

 result of the contention, by the one party or the other, that 

 other circumstances besides mere selling prices should be 

 taken into consideration. The arguments advanced on dif- 

 ferent occasions were the relative wages of ironworkers in 

 other districts, the condition of the labor market, alteration 

 in the cost of materials, transportation, etc., the character 

 of the management of business undertakings, the contrac- 

 tion in the demand for iron, and the cost of living.*' Pro- 



** Because the principle of the sliding scale holds out such great 

 promise of adaptability to different contingencies, Professor Munro 

 has most enthusiastically described it as " the greatest discovery in 

 the distribution of wealth since Ricardo's enunciation of the law of 

 rent " (Munro, p. 26). 



*^ Munro, pp. 17-18. In so far as scales, instead of settling dis- 

 putes, avoid them, they certainly promote trade stability. Francis 

 A. Walker points out that a strike following a period of overproduc- 

 tion may result in clearing the market more thoroughly than would 

 otherwise be done (The Wages Question, p. 391, foot note) ; but 

 the fact remains that employers arc likely to enter upon contracts 

 with greater confidence, if tiiey have reasonaljle assurance that there 

 will be no industrial disputes for a twelve-month. 



*" W. S. Jevons, State in Relation to Labor, p. 162. 



*'' Price, pp. 66, 93. 



