[141] Mr. and Mrs. Webb have described aptly the usual trade union calculations in the formulation of their claims. "The Trade Unionist has a rough and ready barometer to guide him in this difficult navigation. It is impossible, even for the most learned economist or the most accomplished business men, to predict what will be the result of any particular advance of the Common Rule. So long, however, as a Trade Union without in any way restricting the numbers entering its occupation, finds that its members are fully employed, it can scarcely be wrong in maintaining its Common Rules at the existing level, and even, after a reasonable interval, in attempting gradually to raise them.... To put it concretely, whenever the percentage of the unemployed in any particular industry begins to rise from the 3 or 5 per cent characteristic of 'good trade' to the 10, 15 or even 25 per cent. experienced in 'bad trade' there must be a pause in the operatives' advance movement." "Industrial Democracy," pages 738-9. [142] H. B. Higgins, "A New Province for Law and Order," _Harvard Law Review_, Dec., 1920, page 114. [143] Justice Higgins, the head of the Commonwealth Court of Australia, has recently resigned because of the action of the legislature in providing that the executive may set up special and independent tribunals of appeal above the Court of Arbitration. His letter giving the reasons for his resignation (printed in the Melbourne _Argus_, Oct. 26, 1920), gives most convincingly the case for freedom from political interference. One passage of explanation in it is as follows: "On the other hand, a permanent court of a judicial character tends to reduce conditions to system, to standardize them, to prevent irritating contrasts. It knows that a reckless concession made in one case will multiply future troubles. A union that knows that a certain claim is likely to be contested by the court will bring pressure to bear for a special tribunal; and the special tribunal appointed by the government will be apt to yield to demands for the sake of continuity in the one industry before it, regardless of the consequences in other industries. The objectives of the permanent court and of the temporary tribunals are, in truth, quite different--one seeks to provide a just and balanced system which will tend to continuity of work in industries generally, whereas the other seeks to prevent or to end a present strike in its own industry." See also Lord Askwith's "Industrial Problems and Disputes" for another expression of the same view. CHAPTER XI--THE REGULATION OF WAGE LEVELS--(_Continued_)-- WAGES AND PRICES