94 Mr. Alfred Mosely [April 7, 



WEEKLY EYENINa MEETING, 

 Friday, April 7, 1005. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S., Treasurer and 

 Yice-President, iu the Chair. 



Alfred Mosely, Esq., C.M.G. 



American Industry. 



Mr. Mosely gave an address upon the Mosely Industrial Com- 

 mission to the U.S.x^., and the lessons to be learned therefrom. 



He spoke extempore, and commenced by giving his reasons for 

 the commission, stating that, in his opinion, neither ^Yorkers nor 

 employers had quite realised the strength of the competition that 

 was growing up in the United States and Germany, and emphasising 

 the necessity of bringing home to the workers especially the dangers 

 of the situation and the urgent need of acting upon the advice of 

 the Prince of Wales to " wake up." 



As one who had travelled considerably, he was convinced that the 

 time had arrived for the reconsideration of our position from every 

 standpoint — military, educational, and economic ; that the old charac- 

 teristics that had placed us in the front rank in time past — pluck, 

 perseverance, honesty, and energy — were not now sufficient alone to 

 enable us to maintain that position, but that modern scientific 

 methods would have to be adopted, if we were to hold our place ; and 

 we must be prepared to drop preconceived notions, fiscal and other- 

 wise, and to face the new conditions that present themselves to-day, 

 apart from dogmas and prejudices of the past. In other words, we 

 must be ready to meet present competition by, if necessary, altering 

 our fiscal policy to meet the new conditions. 



Mr. Mosely stated distinctly that, whilst strongly in favour of 

 trade unions, he was not in favour of all that trade unionism did ; 

 but he was quite prepared to review the case in a broad-minded 

 spirit, and weigh the good against the bad points of unionism, and 

 to acknowledge the many benefits it had conferred on workers and 

 the community at large, as well as condemn its many errors. Yiewing 

 it as a whole, he felt l)ound to say that those advantages largely out- 

 weighed the mistakes, and he considered that a heavy responsibility 

 rested upon employers to help to guide the unions by frequent 

 " round-table " conferences, for the purpose of discussing the many 

 problems vital alike to capital and labour. 



