THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEATHER INDUSTRY 197 



and partly also, because to understand modern tanning 

 involves a better general education than most workmen 

 receive. It is indeed frequently difficult to find competent 

 under-foremen for the different departments of the modern 

 leather factory. Until recently leather workers have been 

 either unorganized or badly organized, and their views and 

 complaints have been confused and sporadic, but during 

 the war period there has been a very rapid extension of 

 trade union movements, and consequently a more articulate 

 expression of the demands for " democratization " as well 

 as " a greater share in the fruits " of the industry. In the 

 leather trades, however, the gulf between the unskilled 

 labourers and the wealthy employers is perhaps unusually 

 wide, and there is little disposition on the part of capital to 

 recognize the equity of either of the above demands of 

 labour. Generally speaking, the leather trade firms are not 

 public but private companies. There is absolutely no trace 

 of "co-partnership" or "profit-sharing" schemes, or of 

 co-operative production. There is little recognition that the 

 trades' prosperity should be shared in any way by the work- 

 people, and still less recognition of any right to a voice in in- 

 dustrial conditions. This condition of affairs has an ominous 

 reaction upon the attitude of labour, which believes that it is 

 producing great wealth but not obtaining much more than 

 subsistence. It is not the function of this volume to pronounce 

 a verdict upon the wages question or upon the democratiza- 

 tion of the leather trades, but one may be permitted earnestly 

 to hope that if such be the future lines of development, there 

 will be also, as an absolutely essential part of any such 

 schemes, a much higher standard of education amongst the 

 workers, for this is the only satisfactory guarantee that the 

 voice of labour in council will have any practical value, or 

 that hi-her v -11 be at all wisely used by the recipients. 



In his instructive and valuable volume on "The Evolu- 

 tion of Imli: Prof, MacGregor points out that modern 

 industry has evolved three outstanding types, viz. the 

 Co-operative Movement, the Trusts, and the methods of 

 Public Trading. He also suggests that these types tend to 

 blend. In the leather industry co-narrative and municipal 



