rights, and from the perversion or subversion of governmental institutions." (See MOLLY MAGUIRES; McNamara Case; Bisbee DEPORTATIONS; POLICING OF INDUSTRY; ARMED GUARDS; Agent PROVOCATEUR; STATE CONSTABULARY; PREDATORY UNIONISM.)

Visiting Committee. See MALINGERING.

Vocational Counsellor. See VOCATIONAL Guidance.

Vocational Education. That form of instruction which aims toward the development of efficiency in a particular vocation or occupation, rather than towards general cultural development. Including, as it does, training for particular professions as well as particular trades, vocational education denotes the broad general field of which trade education, technical education, and professional education are merely special phases. Vocational education usually includes some general instruction, especially in subjects more closely related to the vocation to be followed. Under the Federal Vocational Education Act of February, 1917, the various states of the American Union are encouraged to make provision for the training of normal persons about to enter, or after entering, an employment, by Federal grants equal in amount (within certain limits) to sums appropriated by state and local authorities for this purpose. (See VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION; TRADE SCHOOLS; PART-TIME SCHOOLS; VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE; PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION.)

Vocational Guidance. This term is applied to various forms of effort directed in general toward helping young people in the problem of preparing for a particular vocation and in finding a suitable and desirable entrance into that vocation. Such efforts are carried on by many different sorts of agencies-public school authorities, teachers' associations, chambers of commerce, etc. The officer in charge of such work is often called a "vocational counsellor."

Vocational Rehabilitation. The retraining, for remunerative occupations, of persons who have been so injured as to render them incapable of following their previous occupations. The movement for vocational rehabilitation received great impetus from conditions produced by the recent war. In June, 1918, Congress passed a Vocational Rehabilitation Act, under which the various states of the Union are encouraged to make provision for the industrial rehabilitation of disabled ex-service men by the offer of Federal grants, equal in amount to whatever sums may be appropriated by the state or local authorities for this purpose, within certain limits. Under

the Industrial Rehabilitation Act of June, 1920, the provisions of the previous Act were extended to apply to all disabled workers, whatever the cause of their disablement. The administration of these two measures, together with that of the Vocational Education Act of February, 1917, is placed in charge of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, consisting of the Secretaries of Labor, Agriculture, and Commerce, the U. S. Commissioner of Education, and three citizens appointed by the President to represent respectively agricultural, manufacturing and commercial, and labor interests. Some systems of WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION carry provisions for vocational rehabilitation, including surgical and medical aid, general reeducation, and assistance in finding reemployment.

Voluntary Arbitration.

See ARBITRATION.

Voluntary Award. See AWARD.

Voluntary Benefit Associations. See ESTAblishment FuND.
Voluntary Insurance. See MUTUAL INSURANCE.

Voluntary Relief Departments. See ESTABlishment Fund.
Voluntary Socialism. See STATE SOCIALISM.

Vorbereitender Reichswirtschaftsrat (Provisional National Economic Council). See REICHSWIRTSCHAFTSRAT.

Voting by Card. The method followed by the BRITISH LABOR PARTY at its annual and special conferences, by which votes on important questions are taken according to cards issued by the Party on the following basis: Trade unions and other affiliated societies receive one voting card for each 1,000 members or fraction thereof in a single society; affiliated TRADES COUNCILS receive one voting card each; LOCAL LABOR PARTIES receive one voting card for each Parliamentary constituency within a party's area; central labor parties in "divided boroughs" receive one voting card each. Every card entitles the body holding it to one vote on any question before the Party conference. (See BLOCK VOTE.)

W

W. E. A. See WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

W. I. U. See WORKERS' INDUSTRIAL UNION.

Wage Bill. See PRICE LIST.

Wage Boards. Joint bodies appointed to establish and regulate MINIMUM WAGE and other wage rates, either for all the industries of a particular geographical area or for a single industry. They are usually composed of an equal number of employers' and employees' representatives, together with an IMPARTIAL CHAIRMAN or one or more "neutral" representatives. In some cases wage boards have jurisdiction also over hours of labor, general working conditions, etc. In Great Britain particularly, wage boards (or "wages boards," as they are called in that country) are an important part of the machinery of industrial CONCILIATION and ARBITRATION. Here the organization of such boards, which are mainly of a local character, is very generally established by permanent written agreement or constitution, while in the United States the methods of organization and procedure are usually left either to unwritten custom or are determined by the annual agreements regarding conditions of labor themselves. "Wages boards are to be distinguished both from mere occasional meetings or conferences between representatives or committees of employers and employed in a trade for the purpose of discussing wage rates or other points at issue, and from the joint committees which are frequently constituted in trades for the purpose of hearing and determining in a judicial manner questions arising between individual employers and those whom they employ. The object of a true wages board is to prevent conflicts by means of periodical and organized meetings of representatives of employers and employed for the purpose of discussing and revising general wage rates in accordance with the changing circumstances of the time... Although the primary purpose of a wages board is the regulation of wages, it may also be made use of for the discussion of other general trade questions, and be, as it were, a parliament of the trade." The term "wage board,"

or "wage committee," is sometimes used in designation of a local body of trade union or employees' representatives, or of both workers' and employers' representatives, appointed to formulate or make adjustments in the wage scale for a particular industry or plant. (See TRADE BOARDS; VICTORIAN WAGES BOARD SYSTEM; MINIMUM WAGE LAWS; RAILROAD LABOR Board.)

Wage Committee. See WAGE BOARDS.

Wage Deductions. In general, these fall into four classes, as follows: (1) Deductions in payment of fines; (2) deductions as payment for damages; (3) deductions for use of tools and material; (4) deductions for medical and other BENEFITS. Laws governing one or several of the various forms of wage deductions exist in the United States and some other countries. (See HOSPITAL-FEE SYSTEM; COMPANY DOCTOR; CHECK-OFF SYSTEM; DOCKAGE SYSTEM.)

Wage Differential. A difference in wage levels maintained for different groups of workmen in the same general occupation. During the recent war, for instance, there existed a differential between the wages of machinists in shipyards and machinists in arsenals and navy yards.

Wage Earners. In arriving at the proper meaning of this term, the American economist Francis A. Walker excludes "first, the employing class; second, all who, having possession of the agencies and instruments of production, whether agricultural or mechanical, are not dependent on others for the opportunity to produce; third, those who, though not owning land, lease it, whether under the protection of law or subject to all the hardships of competition. These successive exclusions leave us the employed class, whether in agriculture or manufactures. From this we further exclude all who produce on shares, and all who are paid or subsist out of the revenues of their employers. We have left the wages class proper, including all persons who are employed in production with a view to the profit of their employers, and are paid at stipulated rates."

Wage Exemption. Under the laws of all states in the United States, wages are exempt in various amounts from attachment, execution, and GARNISHMENT for the payment of debts. This exemption applies also to the house and tools of a wage-earner. In order to make these laws effective for their purpose, the assignment of unearned wages on the part of a laborer is either forbidden or restricted in various ways.

Wage Fund Theory. As an attempt of economists to solve the problem of general WAGES, or what share of the total produce of industry goes to "labor," this theory may be summarized in three propositions, as follows: (1) In any country at any time there is a determinate amount of capital unconditionally destined for the payment of labor. This is the wage fund. (2) There is also a determinate number of laborers who must work independently of the rate of wages-that is, whether the rate is high or low. (3) The wage fund is distributed among the laborers solely by means of competition, employers competing with one another for labor, and laborers with one another for work; and thus the average rate of wages depends on the proportion between the wage fund and population. "There is supposed to be," wrote J. S. Mill, "at any given instant a sum of wealth which is unconditionally devoted to the payment of wages of labor. This sum is not regarded as unalterable, for it is augmented by saving and increases with the progress of society; but it is reasoned upon as at any given moment a predetermined amount. More than that amount it is assumed that the wage-receiving class cannot possibly divide among them; that amount and no less they cannot but obtain. So that the sum to be divided being fixed, the wages of each depend solely on the divisor, the number of participants." If this theory, as thus summarized, be accepted, it follows that wages can only rise either through an increase of capital or through a decrease of population. Hence, also, according to this theory, all combinations of labor are useless, since if one group of workers obtains more than the average rate of wages another group will have to take less. Although now rather completely abandoned by economic authorities, the wage fund theory still lingers in the public mind, and lies at the root of much of the uninformed middleclass hostility to trade unions. (See IRON LAW OF WAGES; MALTHUSIANISM; PRODUCTIVITY THEORY OF WAGES; LUMP OF LABOR THEORY.)

Wage Laws. Legislation, either state or national, governing such matters as the time, place, basis, and medium of wage payments, WAGE DEDUCTIONS, legal procedure for the collection of unpaid wages, WAGE EXEMPTION, assignment of wages, MECHANICS' LIEN, WAGE PREFERENCE, etc. (See TIME OF WAGE PAYMENT; PLACE of Wage PAYMENT; MINIMUM WAGE LAWS; TRUCK SYSTEM; FAIR Wages CLAUSE; REMUNERATION OF LABOR IN RUSSIA.)

Wage Payment Methods. Broadly speaking, in G. D. H. Cole's summary, "there are two possible bases of payment within