460 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F. : 
The provisions of each Act, and the probable economic effects, were dealt 
with in each case. These may be divided into— 
(1) The relation of employee and employer in railway service. 7 
(2) The financial effects which may be expected from the advised amalgama-  — 
tion in one case and the compulsory amalgamation in the other. 
(3) The effect on the traffic working and methods of operation. 
(4) The effect on the relationship of the Government and railways. 
(5) The economic results caused by changes in the services rendered by the 
carriers as between one area and another. 
(6) General economic effects on the countries concerned, which may be sub- 
headed into (a) the result of possible lower rates, with the consequent widening 
of the market; (b) the result of a greater degree of co-operation amongst the 
transport facilities offered. 
The paper ended with a comparison between these probable economic conse- 
quences in the two countries concerned. 
2. Joint Discussion with Section J on The Inter-connections 
between Economics and Psychology in Industry. Opened by 
Mr. Eric FARMER. 
The fundamental concepts of economics cannot be fully understood 
without paying attention to their psychological aspects. Economic Jaws ~ 
do not work in a pure field, but in a field in which psychological factors are 
also operative, and the work of the industrial psychologist is to endeavour 
to measure the effect of these factors. Although this branch of psychology is 
comparatively new, yet sufficient progress has been made to throw considerable 
light upon such problems as the most economic spell of work and type of 
movement; and there is little doubt that as the work continues a definite body 
of laws will be established which will tend to make our knowledge of the 
factors governing production more accurate than at present. 
In the afternoon an excursion to the Docks took place. 
Friday, September 14. 
3. Prof. Henry Cuay.—-The Post-War Wages Problems. 
The settlement of wages before the War was facilitated by the existence of 
well-understood and stable relations between wages in different occupations, 
kept in close correspondence with commercial exigencies by continual small 
modifications. The effect of the War was to dislocate these relations, interrupt 
this modification, and bring wages into correspondence with War-time economic 
needs instead of normal commercial needs. 
The post-War problem is to restore the stability in the relations of wages 
and the close correspondence with commercial possibilities that existed before 
the War. This involves changes from pre-War relations, and the recognition 
as lasting of changes that are still regarded as temporary, in order to allow for 
certain important changes since 1914 in the factors underlying wages. The chief 
of these are changes in the distribution of workers among different occupations ; 
changes in the organisation of wage-earners; changes in the character of work 
required ; and changes in the markets of British industries. 
It is difficult to ascertain whether the general level of real wages has risen 
or fallen, and impossible to forecast its level in the future ; so far, however, as 
a general level has to be assumed for the purpose of settling particular rates, 
it will prove necessary to take the average level of wages in export industries as 
the norm, rather than continue the present custom of taking the pre-War level 
of money wages, and raising it to compensate for the increased cost of living. 
A, Joint Discussion with Section M on The Economic Outlook for 
British Agriculture. (See p. 501.) 
