der the
suggested measure.--Section 7. The chief practical weaknesses of
the suggested measure examined.--Section 8. It would be open to
theoretical criticism also. The alternatives even less
satisfactory.

1.--We can now enter upon the further question of whether the principles
so far formulated, if used in wage settlement, would produce such
distributive results as would justify them to the wage earners and the
community in general. It need hardly be said that the criterion of
justice which will be applied by public opinion to any policy of wage
settlement will not be a simple and clearly defined rule, but will be,
rather, one joint in a loosely articulated social philosophy.

The distributive justice of any set of wage principles will be judged by
the shares of the product of industry which take the form of wages and
profits, respectively. It is true that general satisfaction with them
will be largely governed by the course of real wages after they have
been in force a while. If real wages tended to increase in the period
following their adoption, they would receive far greater approval and
much sturdier defense than if real wages fall during that period. Most
witnesses of the Australian experiments in wage settlement make that
point clear.[147] But in either case, if the organizations of the wage
earners in the United States become as powerful as they are in England
to-day, and if the class-consciousness of the wage earners becomes as
acute, any policy of wage settlement will be severely scrutinized in
regard to the profits return prevailing throughout industry also. If,
with the principles in force, the general level of profits throughout
the field of industry consistently and considerably exceeded what was
deemed to approximate a fair return, it will be held that they give the
wage earners too small a share in the product of the industry. If the
general level of profits throughout the field of industry tended to
approximate a return thought to be fair, the principles will recommend
themselves to the wage earners and to the community in general, as just.
It may be added that the opinion held in regard to the justice of the
principles of wage settlement may also be influenced, in some degree, by
the distribution of the profits return in industry. If a comparatively
few great industrial corporations earn very great profits, it is likely
to arouse greater dissatisfaction than if the same amount