SECTION 20.-STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 215 



general and continuous advance in the solution of industrial and com- 

 mercial problems is thus given. Besides, it is a growing practice for 

 establishments to call in the "scientific manager" or "efficiency engineer" 

 for the purpose of reconstructing them on a scientific basis. We may hence 

 confidently look forward to the establishment of a science of efficiency, 1 

 produced and applied co-operatively. The era of secrecy, incompetence, 

 and isolation in business matters is happily passing. 



As profound is the change which is proceeding in a cognate direction. 

 Collective bargaining was long resisted by employers (and in some quarters 

 is still resisted). However, not only is the principle now generally con- 

 ceded that workingmen may belong to a trade union and that they may 

 be represented by the officials of their unions, but the representatives of 

 the employers' and employees' unions meet and amicably arrive at collective 

 agreements. In the workshop, too, the worker is ceasing to be arrogantly 

 or philanthropically treated, and workshop and employment conditions 

 are coming to be decided by joint committees of employers' and workers' 

 representatives. Already, also, representation of the workers on boards 

 of management is being introduced, and to a share in the general manage- 

 ment a share in the profits is coming to be added. Legislation is being 

 similarly affected. Only a few years ago, the government of the country, 

 save for the voting at elections, was entirely out of the hands of the people. 

 A far-reaching democratic principle is at present making headway, and 

 men will soon be wondering how undemocratic the past was. In advanced 

 democratic countries, for instance, industrial legislation is now prepared 

 by Governments in close co-operation with employers' and workers' repre- 

 sentatives, and the same principle is tending to be applied in the prepara- 

 tion of all forms of legislation. It is one of the happiest auguries of the 

 coming co-operative world State that the diverse Peace Treaties concluded 

 between the late belligerents contain a provision for the holding annually 

 of International Labour Conferences. These have for their object the 

 iraming of international draft conventions on labour matters, and are 

 attended by a fixed number of representatives of Governments, employers, 

 and workers 2 Government, 1 employers', and 1 workers' representative 

 for each country. In other words, the day does not appear to be distant, 

 when Governments, firms, and other bodies, and individuals, too, will 

 tread the ethically and methodologically more excellent way of co-operation. 



In the centuries to come there will be an end to producing 

 many or ponderous books, whilst unreliable accounts and inade- 

 quate theories will reach the vanishing point. Relatively few 

 comprehensive and fascinating pamphlets and lectures, in addi- 

 tion to reports, text-books, and encyclopedias, will enlighten 

 humanity, and it will be acknowledged both that science should 

 rule man's daily life and thought and that such science must 

 be the effect of collaboration* 2 



1 A work on the subject, heralding the dawn, is Fundamental Sources of 

 Efficiency, 1914, by F. Durell. 



2 "In 1907, 1042 authors presented to the world 2131 papers on meteorology, 

 229 on atmospheric electricity, and 180 on terrestrial magnetism." (Report 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1908, p. 589.) 

 Manifestly men's ambition should be to spend practically a life-time in elu- 

 cidating a single large question as was the case with Gibbon, Adam Smith, 

 Darwin, and others, and to attempt this by consultation and co-operation. 

 The prevailing fashion, even in the highest quarters, of innumerable scholars 

 producing many varied essays is apparently not the best one. On reflection 

 it would be generally admitted that the quality of one's performance is 

 immeasurably raised in value if time is freely bestowed on it, and that, in 

 the absence of systematic provision for every thought being followed up, 



