OcToBER 19, 1916] 
Its cardinal facts should be known to those who now 
have an opportunity for shaping the industrial future 
of this country. : 
Three lessons stand out from this experience :— 
(1) We must learn to work together in association. 
(2) All members. of an association must be abso- 
lutely loyal and honest to their engagements, either 
written or implied. 
(3) Such associations must be regulated or the com- 
munity will be exploited. 
Nor is it impossible to suggest a method by means 
of which this may result. When employers’ associa- 
tions have justified themselves it should be possible to 
obtain State recognition for them, and it would be 
practical politics, when both employers’ associations 
and trade unions have developed to the point at 
which both merit State recognition, to enforce under 
penalty agreements made between them on all those, 
either employers or workpeople, who wished to work 
at the industry within the area under the recognised 
organisations. Thus it would not be necessary to 
make membership compulsory; self-interest would be 
the extent of the pressure, 
Turning to workpeople’s unions, we also find defects 
which require removing. The policy of union has 
been practised among the workers for upwards of a 
century, and for at least half that time with well- 
marked success in certain directions. In the first 
instance it was the aristocracy of labour that realised 
the advantage of collective action, but, notably since 
the late ’eighties of last century, efforts have been 
made to extend the policy to all grades of labour. 
Hence the ailments which have to be noted are rather 
more mature than those affecting employers’ associa- 
tions. Success in certain directions has perhaps led 
some of the more ardent spirits to expect more from 
their unions than working conditions allow. The 
experience of old and tried leaders has led them to 
adopt a more cautious policy than the young bloods 
are inclined to accept. Hence there has been a want 
of loyalty, different, it is true, from that met with 
among employers, but equally disastrous if persisted 
in to the object in view. 
All the men in a given industry should be members 
of the union, provided that the union is well organised 
and ably administered. This should, however, be the 
result of self-interest and a regard for the good of 
fellow-workers, rather than of compulsion; how that 
may be attained has been suggested. Perfection of 
organisation will come when workpeople not only 
realise the real possibilities of collective action, but 
are prepared to follow lovally leaders who have been 
constitutionally elected. The leaders are in a better 
position to know the facts of the case immediately 
under review, but if their leadership has been found 
faulty there should be adequate machinery for replac- 
ing them with men who command the confidence of 
the majority of the members. When agreements have 
been entered into, the terms should be implicitly 
observed, even though they may turn out to be less 
advantageous than was expected. Periodical revision 
would make it possible to rectify mistakes or mis- 
apprehensions. But it cannot be too strongly empha- 
sised that for both sets of organisation the great factor 
making for smooth and satisfactory working is abso- 
lute loyalty to the pledged word. A large employer of 
skilled labour writing to me on this point said :— 
“In my opinion no industrial harmony can exist be- 
tween employers and employees until trade unions 
through their executives can compel their members to 
adhere to and honourably carry out all agreements 
entered into with the employers. . . . In fact, until a 
more honest code of morals exists on both sides no 
improvement can be looked for.” 
NO. ‘2451, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
141 
Further, there is a need for a more complete and 
authoritative central authority, both for individual in- 
dustries and for federated trades. The machinery for 
this exists, it merely requires development. When 
the local and central machinery has been perfected, 
the right to strike, which, in common with the right 
to lock out as a final resource, should be jealously, 
maintained, would be carefully regulated, and would 
only be resorted to as the considered judgment of the 
most experienced men on either side. It should be 
impossible for either an individual association or a 
section of it to order a strike or a lock-out on its own 
responsibility. 
What, then, do I consider should be the main out- 
line of industrial organisation? Employers should be 
organised ‘into :— 
(a) Associations of one trade in a given district. 
(b) National associations of one trade. 
(c) Local federations of trades. 
(d) National federations of trades. 
Of these, (b) and (d) should be organised under a 
system of representation. 
Workpeople should have unions and federations 
corresponding to those of the employers, and in both 
cases the national federations should be carefully 
organised councils, who would enjoy a large measure 
of authority, tempered by the necessity to win and 
preserve the confidence of their electors. From these 
two representative bodies there could be elected an 
industrial council as a court of appeal, representative 
of the whole industrial activity of the country, and so 
far as these various bodies were approved by the State 
they would enjoy far-reaching powers. 
Approval by the State should depend on the observ- 
ance of moderation and working in conformity with 
carefully devised regulations. For the State in this 
matter would be the representative of the consumer 
and of the national interest. Without this you get 
something not very far removed from Syndicalism, but 
under careful regulation abuses might be avoided. 
At the head of the organisation there would be a 
real industrial council representing the industry of 
the country. The industrial council established in 
the vear 1911 has never had a fair chance to show its 
mettle. It was established at a critical time; perhaps 
the Government did not feel justified in throwing a 
great responsibility on an untried body. Nevertheless, 
it exemplified a very wise policy, and one regrets that 
it has not been tested, for even now both employers 
and workpeople feel that some such council is prefer- 
able to State interference, and there is a clearly articu- 
lated distrust on both sides of official arbitration. 
We do not need at the present juncture to attempt 
a new experiment. Our old system, whatever its 
failings, has been tried and proved sound. Its elas- 
ticity has been its salvation, and it is capable of still 
further evolution without calling for drastic changes. 
The improved organisation that is now suggested 
would contain nothing that is new or untried. It 
would consist of natural developments of what already. 
exists. Employers and workpeople have organised 
themselves into associations and unions, some of these 
have developed federations of similar or even of un- 
connected interests; and both parties have their 
national congresses, or at any rate the germ of them. 
The demand now is that the organisations already in 
existence be perfected, and that those perfected organ- 
isations shall in all their agreements be loyally and 
honestly supported by their members. Success de- 
pends on absolute loyalty to the pledged word. 
Here we have a practical policy’ suited to the needs 
of this critical stage in our history. The ideal organ- 
isation has yet to be formulated, but’ what is here 
proposed would form a definite step in advance, and 
