ON ESTABLISHING OBSERVATIONS UPON EARTH TREIIOES. 523 



with, as mucli accuracy as possible the time, form, and intensity of each 

 set of tremors are very desirable, and indeed indispensable, yet only a 

 comparatively small number of such instruments would be required in a 

 general scheme of seismographical observatories. Such instruments, 

 moreover, could only be used with effect in carefully selected situations, 

 and otherwise under very special conditions. On the other hand, com- 

 paratively rough, cheap, and easily used instruments, which could do 

 little more than afTord fairly accurate time-records, would be required in 

 large numbers, and must form a most important portion of such a 

 scheme. 



Under these circumstances the Committee are glad to hear that the 

 observations and trials of instruments above referred to are being con- 

 tinued in the north of England and elsewhere. They trust that special 

 attention will be paid to the question of suitability in selecting the locali- 

 ties and, generally speaking, in considering all the local conditions of 

 the observing stations. 



Earth-tremors appear to be of frequent occurrence, and should be 

 recorded, but the Committee propose to take no immediate action. Next 

 year they hope to be in a position to present a report containing definite 

 recommendatioHS. In asking to be reappointed they hope that Mr. M. 

 Walton Brown, who has conducted the observations in Durham, may be 

 added to the Committee. 



The Relations behveen Sliding Scales and Economic Theory. 

 By L. L. Pkice, M.A. 



[A communication ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso 



among the Reports.] 



The treatment which I have ventured to give in this paper to the subject I 

 have chosen — the Relations between Slidiug Scales and Economic Theory 

 — will, I am afraid, appear at the outset to be contined within very narrow 

 and definite limits. It will seem to involve nothing more than an inquiry 

 into the connection which exists, or may exist, between a practical ex- 

 pedient adopted with some success in some few industries for the regula- 

 tion of wages, and that limited — although contentious — part of theoretic 

 economics which is concerned with the determination of the rate of wages. 

 And, narrow and definite as these limits may appear, I propose to cir- 

 cumscribe the subject still further ; for not only do I intend in the main 

 to limit my consideration of sliding scales to their employment in the 

 regulation of wages, but I pui-pose also to confine it for the most pa.rt to 

 the form in which they have, as a matter of actual fact, been employed. 

 By sliding scales, then, I mean in the main certain expedients which have 

 been adopted in the coal and iron industries as the result of an agreement 

 between two opposing combinations of masters on the one hand and of 

 men on the other, in accordance with which fluctuations in wages have 

 followed, we may almost say automatically, on changes in the selling 

 prices of the coal and iron. And by economic theory I mean for the most 

 part that theory which is known by the name — partial and ei'roneous as 

 may be its application- — of the abstract or deductive method. Within 

 these narrow and definite limits I propose to examine the nature of the 

 relations between sliding scales and economic theory. 



