ted
which will be fair and sound enough to be accepted as a serviceable
criterion of the distributive consequences of the policy of wage
settlement.

3.--What grounds, if any, are there for the belief that the principles
of wage settlement so far proposed would bring about a division of the
product between wages and profits that would meet the test of just and
sound distribution suggested above?

The principles, so far proposed, leave the determination of the profits
return predominantly to the action of industrial competition, reenforced
by the action of public opinion in the direction of preventing the
return from mounting to an obviously excessive point. They offer no
safeguard against the reduction of the profit return below that point
set as the mark of just and sound distribution, save the public will to
continue the present system and a general knowledge of the motives and
conditions upon which it rests. Nor could they very well.

It is true that the enactment of the principles suggested up to this
point would mean the imposition of certain genuine restrictions upon the
actions of those who direct industry, as for example, in connection with
the living wage program. It would give all wage earners the benefits of
organization. It would make for rapid and certain compensation for price
movements. It would prevent wage reductions merely because of the
poverty of any group. Nevertheless, if the analysis of distribution made
earlier in the book is substantially correct, the answer to the question
at the head of this section must be that there would be no very
compelling tendency for distribution to result justly, under the
enforcement of the wage principles so far proposed. The distributive
result would still depend largely upon the reality and intensity of
industrial competition, upon the strength, activity, and foresightedness
of the wage earners' organizations, upon the will and spirit of the
directors of industry, and upon the quality and liveness of public
opinion. That admission can be made, even though it is believed that
under the suggested principles the outcome of distribution would be
nearer the desired outcome than it is at present; and that there would
be a clearer perception of the public interest in the outcome of
distribution than at present.

4.--If a measure could be devised which would help to bring about the
desired distributive outcome, without greatly weakening in some other
direction th