is most voluminous and inconclusive. Could an accurate measure be had of the facts, a more satisfactory body of wage theory might well be created. While this chapter merely aims to indicate the possible uses of wage statistics, it is impossible to pass by the question of wage theory without insisting upon the necessity of reaching some measure of agreement regarding the underlying causes which are operating to maintain or to change wages, A statement of wage facts may, perhaps, assist somewhat in hastening that agreement.
Important as wage facts are, from a theoretical standpoint, they have an even more vital application to the "cost of living" and "standard of living" problems. The heated discussions which have recently appeared in theoretical treatises, popular magazines and daily papers over the relation of wages and the cost of living indicate the universal interest which is felt in the problem. The facts regarding the cost of living can be gathered with a reasonable degree of accuracy by an examination of Bradstreet's Review of Wholesale Prices. The facts regarding wages are well-nigh inaccessible. Hence, statements of the relation
between wages and the cost of living are faulty
[7]
