Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/235

A NEW PROVINCE FOR LAW AND ORDER 199 reference has been the only means within the power of the Court for meeting the increasing demand to which I have referred. It meets the demand to a certain extent, and tends to further de- velopments. How THE Basic Wage is Found The "basic" or living wage, the minimum wage for the unskilled worker, is the primary factor in the fixing of all wages by award; and the fixing of the proper basic wage is necessarily of an impor- tance that can hardly be exaggerated. It must vary with the cost of living in the various districts: for instance, the basic wage for the seaports would not be a proper basic wage for inland mining districts such as Broken Hill. But sometimes by general consent a uniform basic wage is desirable, as in the case of the waterside workers or seamen; and the Court then takes as its guide the mean cost of living for the several ports. In such cases it becomes possi- ble to form some idea of the immense sums which an award of the Court may transfer from the employing (or the consuming) class to the employed. An increase of i/~ per working day for ten thousand men means an increased expenditure of £156,500 per annum; and there were about seventeen thousand men in the union of waterside workers. In that case arbitration was sought by about one himdred and fifty employers — trading oversea, in- terstate, within a state. Not only in the vastness of the sums in- volved, but in the effects on families and the proper nurture of children, and in indirect consequences in all employments, the responsibility of the Court is very grave. The decisions of the Court probably affect directly more human lives than the decisions of all the other courts. The Court has repeatedly invited full enquiry on scientific lines as to the cost of living, but neither the government nor the parties have yet responded. Preferably the enquiry should be made by expert statisticians and on the* basis of distinct regimens, but the responsibility of fixing the basic wage should be left with the Court. In the meantime the Court has been obliged to work out the problem on the best materials that it can get. At present the Court takes as prima facie evidence the find- ings as to the cost of living on then existing habits in Melbourne in 1907, and then it takes the statistician's figures as to the depre- ciation in the value of money as against commodities as prima