ease, and very much behind the wholesale price increase. The chief
aim, therefore, of any plan for the adjustment of wages to upward price
movement must be the protection of the interests of the wage earners.
Changes in the distributive situation that are unfavorable--judged by
reference to the distributive outcome to be sought by any policy of wage
settlement--must be prevented, if possible. It is the second of the
problems which presents the difficulty.

There is one method of wage and price adjustment which holds an
important place in current discussion. Indeed, it has tended to be the
prevailing method although it has never been applied systematically in
the United States.[58] That is the method based upon the doctrine of the
maintenance of the standard of living. This doctrine aims to maintain
real wages at a constant level throughout the course of price change.
The labor unions have usually given it their support, finding in it a
strong basis for their claims.[59] Is it the best possible method of
adjustment considering the end to be attained?

Its advantages are definite. It is a simple claim. It is a claim the
justice of which could be denied only under unusual circumstances. It
has in the past brought considerable benefits to the wage earners,
because they have usually stood to gain by any vigorous assertion of
their interests.

What are its disadvantages? The first of its disadvantages is in the
difficulty of interpreting the doctrine into practical policy. There has
seemed to be one straightforward way of interpreting it. Investigations
have been made from time to time of the commodities and services on
which the working class household tends to spend the bulk of its income.
As a result of these investigations budgets have been drawn up which
were deemed sufficiently representative of the main currents of
expenditure of the mass of wage earners at a given time and place. On
the basis of this data an index number of the cost of living for the
mass of wage earners, at the given time and place, has been prepared by
methods too familiar to require explanation here. In the past the price
collections ordinarily used were composed mainly of the prices of
foodstuffs. But recent data covers a much wider portion of the total
expenditure.[60] An index number for the cost of living having thus been
prepared, it has been conceived that the variations in this index
number were indicative of the change in the cost of livi