Page:Wages in US 1908-1910.djvu/42

Rh explain the source of the Massachusetts statistics, and in the hope that other labor bureaus may follow the Massachusetts example and thus provide a larger body of accurate wage data. The system, while little more expensive, is infinitely more valuable than the "Maximum and Minimum" and "Average" systems of wage compilation,—adopted by so many of the States.

A solution of many social problems depends upon an accurate answer to the question, "What are wages?" The fact basis for such an answer can be secured in one of two ways. Either the Federal government must organize and administer an enormous system for collecting and compiling industrial statistics, or else the States must utilize the machinery already existing, collect uniform statistics and present them in a uniform manner. The latter alternative is by far the more rational, though it may not in the end prove more feasible. Several States, however, are already presenting wage material which is fairly uniform, having adopted the standard originally set by Massachusetts. Thus the means for securing uniform wage statistics already exists in all States which have labor bureaus. It only remains for the various bureaus to follow the example of