The enactment of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 promises a fundamental readjustment of the pattern of industrial relations which has developed under the Wagner Act. The year 1946, therefore, may well be viewed in retrospect as the apex of power of free and unfettered unionism. Protected by the Wagner Act in their right to engage in concerted activities free of employer interference, and subject only to the formal restriction of a 30-day strike notice required by the Smith-Connally Act, unions wielded the strike weapon with a vengeance. Great cities were darkened, the flow of supplies toEurope was cut off, the automobiles, refrigerators, and radios which war-wearyAmericans had waited for were left standing unfinished on the production lines. In all, a total of 113,000,000 man-days of idleness were produced by strikes in 1946 alone.1 Was it worth it? Did unions serve as an effective instrument to increase the real income of their members? Between November 1945 and November 1946, largely due to the militant pressure of organized labor, average hourly earnings in manufacturing rose from $.99 to $1.13.2 But in the same period, the BLS index of the cost of living rose from 129.3 to 151.73, thus largely offsetting the gain made in money wages. Moreover, in particular industries, the strikes were so costly that it will be many years before the workers affected will have fully recouped their losses.4 This record accounts for the hesitancy of labor leaders in ushering in another wave of strikes in 1947. Moreover, it is a record which must have given many a workingman reason to pause and to reconsider just how effective his union was in raising his real income. True, if unions had not demanded higher wages, prices might have risen anyway and thus labor might have fared even more badly; yet the close temporal sequence between wage increases and compensatory price adjustments, which was clear even to the nontechnical observer, should have caused even the most sanguine union leader to doubt whether at the present stage of union development wages can be substantially increased without affecting the general level of prices. The year 1947 is an appropriate time for labor to pause and to examine its