Wages of War

Enthusiastic as were the advocates of welfare policies for the worker, the question of wages was the most important aspect of employment. “The work-people wanted to ‘addle more brass’ and no amount of philosophic discussion or philanthropic sectional improvement could make up for the desire for more secure and better pay.” ¹ The workman's major criterion in judging the desirability of a job was the remuneration; the lure of higher pay was the chief factor in his determining to give up one job for another. The wage problem is therefore closely tied up with labor turnover and efficiency. It was a problem highly difficult of solution and was never satisfactorily solved. If it was true of the Government's labor policy in general that it had none, ² the aphorism was particularly true in the case of wages. Wage regulation was undertaken by the Government with extreme reluctance. As in other fields of State intervention during wartime, the Government had few precedents to go by. The Fair Wages Clause in government contracts, which provided that “prevailing” wages and hours must be observed by contractors on government work, the Trades Boards Act of 1909, and the Coal Mines Minimum Wage Act all dealt with wages, but experience under them could not offer much assistance.