ofits
in most all or all of the enterprises engaged in a particular industry
are considerably below what is conceived as a fair profits return for
industry as a whole. Cases will arise in which it may be to the interest
of the wage earners in particular industries to accept wage reductions,
because the industry is doing poorly. In such cases, however, the wage
earners may be expected to agree--perhaps, only after a while--to wage
reduction, in the course of wage bargaining. If, however, the wage
earners will not agree that their interests are served by reduction, it
will probably be sound policy to back them up.

It must be admitted that this conclusion as to the inadvisability of
adjusting wages by reference to the profits return of particular
industries is not set down without hesitation. It is plain that if that
idea is to be rejected, the policy of wage settlement as a whole must
give some other guarantee of distributive justice to the wage earners.
And, indeed, if after a certain period of operation and education it was
found that very large profits were accruing steadily in certain
industries, and if it did not seem likely that these profits would be
reduced to what is conceived to be a fair level either by the forces of
competition or public opinion, it might be found wiser to pursue the
opposite course--that is, grant wage increases in those industries even
at the risk of breaking down the scheme of wage relationship. Much will
depend upon the way in which the employers respond to the purposes
embodied in the policy of wage settlement. And upon the success of the
wage earners and employers in reaching, by collective bargaining,
agreements satisfactory to both.

Justice W. Jethro Brown of the Industrial Court of South Australia has
stated the problem with great clearness. He writes, "With respect to
such an issue, one is on the horns of a dilemma. (1) If unusually high
profits are being made in an industry, ought not the employees to have
a right to share therein? (2) If one does award high rates of wages, is
not one inviting discontent amongst other classes of workers in allied
industries or industries generally? Employees are so apt to judge
themselves well or ill treated by a comparison of nominal wages without
any reference to conditions of industry. In various judgments I have
held that it would be quite permissible, if not appropriate, for the
Court to take into consideration the fact that an industry is