TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 575 
to finished units of output. (c) The internal Staff Organisation of the individual 
business. There is not merely a division of labour, but a division of function 
and a sub-division of authority. This sets up a departmental organisation and 
inter-relation from the head management right down to the last man who is to be 
possessed of authority. (d) Forms of Combinations between many individual 
firms, in order to regulate or to restrict competition : the descriptive side of what 
is loosely called the ‘Trust Movement’ in industry. (e) Modern institutions 
organised for handling questions in dispute between Employer and Employed : 
such as Trade Unions, Employers’ Federations, Conciliation Boards, &c. 
Of course, Business Organisation stands to Business Policy very much as 
Anatomy stands to Physiology: the one is structure, the other function. The 
study of both, in their general principles, is essential to the Higher Commercial 
Education. But this paper is concerned with the former only. 
The central problems of Business Organisation have to do with Staff Organisa- 
tion and the sub-division into departments. The scientific clue to departmental 
division lies in the practical fact that different stages in the making or the 
marketing of goods require widely diverse experiences in the authorities that 
control those stages. In any properly organised business it is possible to exhibit 
by a chart on paper the departmental divisions in such a way as to show how 
the authorities governing different departments are related to the industrial body 
as a whole; in other words, to show exactly where each authority is related to 
the others, and how far each authority may extend in the business. 
Now, we can find in American text-books the Organisation Charts of many 
different types of business; for examples, an American railroad company, a large 
meat-packers’ business, a shipbuilding yard, a typewriter (or motor-car) manu- 
facturing company, &c. One learns from them that, while all factories are not 
alike, the principles of the accounting system used by one are applicable to 
another: the details may vary, but not the principles. Any business man, by 
following a similar analysis, can put down on paper the actual, or ideal, Organisa- 
tion Chart for his own special business. This chart will express all the mutual 
relations governing the organisation of his business; it will show clearly the 
very foundation upon which all the authorities, the accounting system, and the 
business operations are based and conducted. But the grand impediment to the 
study of Business Organisation in this country is the complete absence from 
our text-books of Organisation Charts stating the actual facts of the working 
organisation of representative British businesses of various types and dimensions. 
It is well known that large-scale production ceases to be profitable when its 
organisation becomes unmanageable : the limit to the size of the business-unit is 
fixed by the ability for administration. But this ability can be greatly extended 
by the scientific study of Business Organisation. 
The paper was illustrated by lantern slides showing the Organisation Charts 
of various types of businesses, and the method of analysing such charts when 
problems of business administration raise fresh issues in Business Organisation. 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 
Discussion on Inland Waterways. 
(i) The Improvement and Unification of English Waterways. 
By Lord SuaurrLewortu. 
The author recalled the circumstances under which a Royal Commission was 
appointed in 1906 to inquire into the inland waterways question in the United 
Kingdom. After four years’ labours, they reported on English Waterways, 
contrasting their disunited and unimproved condition with the results of unifica- 
tion and improvement of this system of transport in foreign countries, and 
recommending the appointment of a Central Waterway Board to deal with 
Waterways, much as the Road Board deals with roads, without undertaking the 
business of carrying. 
The Commission had done its part, and it now rested with the traders and 
