The war destroyed the delicate pre-war wage-relationship between the different classes of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled labour—in some cases the new relationship is a complete inversion of the old. This was partly the result of Government Departments concerned in production—the Admiralty, War Office, Ministry of Munitions—advancing wages of men under their control independently and without reference to one another, in some cases actually enticing men to their employment; partly of strong sectional Trade Union pressure, and partly of the celebrated 12½ per cent, bonus to time-workers, and 7½ per cent. bonus to piece-workers. Since the war, the want of balance has been aggravated by the action of employers and Trade Unions in industries supplying a national necessity, e.g. building, whereby wages were so raised that unskilled men were paid more than skilled men in a trade like engineering. There is no more active cause of industrial discontent. As an illustration of how it operates, at the Dockers’ Inquiry, the Transport Workers’ Federation protested against any comparison between dockers’ wages and those of other workers—they termed it a “capitalistic device” to deprive dockers of their rightful advance. The Transport Workers were members of the Triple Alliance; the railwaymen were also members. A few weeks later the railwaymen were claiming before their Central Wages Board an increase in wage because the dockers had obtained a minimum wage of 16s. per day. It is therefore vital to get back to, and as far as possible preserve, the pre-war wage relationships. Wages and the Community Public opinion is beginning to insist, as it ought to do, on recognition of the interests of the consuming community, which in the past have been wholly ignored. If an increase in wages in an industry is, and can be, secured by an increase in price, as when the output is a necessity, the workers in that industry benefit at the expense of the workers in other industries, and of the consumers generally. In other words, the public pays, as in the case of housing. If an all-round increase in wages in all industries is financed by a general increase in prices, then all prices are higher, and the commodity purchasing power of the increased wages is no greater than that of the wages before increase, and again the public suffers from the general rise in prices. Already a beginning has been made in recognizing the interests of the community in placing public representatives upon the Railway National Wages Board. Are Higher Wages Practicable?