274 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
now advocate government regulation of railroad rates.’ ”’ 
That it should be both possible and desirable for the 
Government to fix prices in a monopoly industry, where 
regulations can be enforced rigidly, will at once be 
conceded by all. The monopoly itself fixes prices with 
a view to the maximum net revenue. It should be 
possible for another authority, with adequate knowledge 
as to how far it is safe to go, to fix prices in the same 
industry. According to Prof. Jethro Brown this control 
implies little more than the extension of the principles 
which underlie existing legislation for the protection of 
the wage earner. If prices are fixed directly, then 
this is the policy of the legislative minimum. By 
authorising representatives of the various branches of 
an industry to agree to prices, the policy of the wages 
board will be followed. If an impartial tribunal is given 
the duty of fixing prices, then use is made of the policy 
of compulsory arbitration. Moreover, it must also be 
conceded that price fixation may take various forms. It 
may be direct; or a maximum or a minimum price may 
be declared ; or further, a monopoly may be called upon 
to revise its prices; finally, a sliding scale may be used. 
Thus we find a very plausible argument in favour of 
price control. 
But this analogy between attempts to fix prices and 
the declaration of standard wages is an imperfect one. 
Labour is only one element in the cost of production, 
and when wages are fixed it is this element only which 
is controlled. When, on the other hand, prices are fixed 
at standard figures, then all the elements in cost of 
production are controlled in a greater or less degree. 
Thus, not only wages but also profits, interest, wages of 
management, rent, etc., are all interfered with. More- 
over, the difficulties encountered in fixing rates are at a 
minimum, and the advantages at a maximum in the 
case of those wages which are controlled at present by 
