794 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



Board. The representatives on the Disputes Board were also the delegates on the 

 Conciliation Board. 



For two years the Disputes Board appeared to work satisfactorily; but in 1903 

 there was some friction, and again the diversity of interests of millmen and tinhouse- 

 men was made evident. The employers and the workmen failed to agree on a ques- 

 tion affecting millmen. The masters wished to submit the dispute to arbitration, but 

 to this the millmen (who were in a position to strike with fair prospect of success) 

 were strongly opposed. The representatives of the finishing departments, who 

 were not directly affected, naturally favoured arbitration, and the Disputes Board 

 fell in with the wishes of the employers. 



The Board of Trade appointed an arbitrator, and the case ended in a victory 

 for the employers. 



Further, in the following year, the Disputes Board decided to enter a test case 

 (relating to the ' custom ' of the trade) for trial in the High Court of Justice, the 

 cost to be shared by the four associations connected with the Board. Three of 

 the associations withdrew, and the Steel Smelters' Union was left to fight without 

 financial assistance. Tlie Steel Smelters' Union then resigned from the Disputes 

 Board, which was consequently dissolved. Tlie causes of the failure of this method 

 of collective bargaining may be summed up as follows : — 



(1) Matters concerning the finishing departments demanded the attendance ot 

 millmen (and vice versa), although they were not directly affected by the results 

 and did not contribute to the discussion. Consequently, there was considerable 

 waste of time. 



(2) Voting power did not vary with the interests at stake — e.ff., millmen 

 voted on questions affecting the finishing department. There was thus a lack of 

 responsibility: one department would generally vote in favour of arbitration on 

 a question affecting the other branch ; they had uothiug to lose by failure and 

 everything to gain by avoiding a strike. 



(3) A list of claims was presented to the Conciliation Board by each depart- 

 ment. If the claims of one department, being just in the opinion of the employers, 

 were granted by them, the concessions were made by the representatives of the 

 other department the grounds for concessions to that department, irrespective of 

 the nature of the claims. Thus, often the discussion did not turn on the justice 

 of the demands by a particular section. 



Since the Disputes Board was dissolved, the employers have met the workmen 

 in two annual conferences — at one the millmen are represented, at the other the 

 workers in the finishing departments. Wages agreements are made for one year, 

 and agreements made with any section are operative ' from the date upon which 

 an arrangement is completed with the other sections of the trade.' 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. 



Joint Meeting with the Agricultural Sub-Section. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Social Aspects of Agricultural Co-operation. 

 By J. Graham Brooks, M.A, 



The social reactions of this form of co-operation are illustrated by (a) the 

 lengthening of the labour-time during the year, and by the greater variety of 

 things grown and by-products created — thus helping in the problem of unemploy- 

 ment ; (6) the putting of the whole farming class to school ; elementary science in 

 many forms must be applied every day in the week ; (c) helping to overcome the 

 distrust of the well-equipped and competent man. 'This new confidence in the 

 trained man is already beginning to show itself in the political field. It is 

 actually producing a better type of clergyman and schoolmaster, (d) It is 

 not only unifying interests, but is destroying the theory of necessary class con- 



