MODERN MEDIEVALISM by 
unionist struggles for fair and living wages. Even the individualistic 
American farmers are earnestly striving to fix “fair” prices for their 
wheat, oats, corn, tobacco and other crops. Australia attempts to make 
the application of a protective tariff to a given establishment dependent 
upon the payment of “ fair” wages to the employees of that concern. 
A Wisconsin commission is industriously placing a valuation upon the 
physical property of the public utilities corporations of that state, in 
order that “ reasonable ” rates may be promulgated by that official body. 
In this manner, the ground is being rapidly cut from under the com- 
petitive basis of price regulation. Our commercial edifice still rests on 
this substructure; but the foundation walls are crumbling, and ominous 
eracks which presage decay and demolition are appearing in the struc- 
ture. Society is impregnated with the idea that competition is no 
longer efficient and sufficient as a guide. From all sections of the 
country come reports of rate commissions, boards of arbitration, gentle- 
men’s agreements, combinations and legal actions against restraint 
of trade. 
With the narrowing of the competitive sphere the question as to 
what is a just, accurate and scientific standard of measurement for 
wages, prices and rates becomes increasingly important; and, at the 
same time, it becomes more difficult to solve because the basis of com- 
petitive rates, prices and wages is being undermined. In fact, if no 
standard can be found, socialism or anarchy seem to be the only alterna- 
tives. Much of the discussion and theorizing as to the respective rights 
of labor and capital is worthless because either free competition is 
assumed, or reference is made to prices or wages paid in the past; or 
some arbitrary standard is postulated which has no reality outside the 
personal desires of certain individuals or classes. 
No court of arbitration or board of conciliation has as yet offered 
any definite and scientific formula by means of which disputes as to 
wages or conditions of labor may be adjusted. The findings of that 
famous board of arbitration, the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, 
merely offered a compromise; the commission did not dig down to the 
roots of the difficulty. Neither did an anxious public receive any exact 
data or the formulation of any definite method of procedure which 
might be used as a basis for the work of future boards. A peace was 
patched up, and the mines were opened. The members of the strike 
commission honestly and faithfully tried to take into account the phys-, 
ical, social and economic conditions then existing in the anthracite 
district. They investigated the home and working environment of the 
miner; his condition was compared with that of other workers, Yet 
after all, the principal value of this investigation consisted in empha- 
sizing the rights of the general public. The decisions of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission and of the various state railway and public 
utilities commissions as to reasonable rates are invariably determined 
by reference to profits received upon investments in competitive busi- 
