Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/337

2] The Index Visible, Inc., of New Haven, Connecticut, adopted a simpler plan based on the index number of retail prices of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Various flouring mills in Seattle and other points in the Northwest have raised the wages of their employees on several occasions. The adjustments were made at irregular intervals, but consciously to meet the increase in living costs. The survey of prices on which the increase was determined was made under the direction of Professor W. F. Ogburn, now of Columbia University, who calculated the index figures finally used. The minimum wage laws in Oregon and Washington were also revised in accordance with the increased cost of living.

The chief use of index numbers in settling wage disputes was in the decisions of the National War Labor Board. Strikes have been settled and wage increases made specifically on the basis of index numbers.

The principle was also recognized by the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board. This board adopted the plan of making half yearly (April 1 and October 1) adjustments of wages in all shipbuilding centers, based on changes in the cost of living as determined for the Board by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Another application of index numbers is by the War Department, which in fixing the prices at which it disposes of its machine tools is proposing to use an index number, among other factors, to adjust the present prices of sale to the original cost, or price of purchase.

In England, the employees in several branches of the textile trade drew up an agreement with their employers in January, 1918, canceling all previous war bonuses and establishing the regulation of wages by the index number of the cost of living as calculated by the Board of Trade.

The same principle of adjusting wages to the high cost of living has been applied in Australia.

Some of the expedients cited are in permanent use;