634 TRAKSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 



who seem, either through self-consciousness or ignorance, to be ashamed to 

 mention the subject of the British Empire, or, what is worse, to acknowledge 

 that any love of their country is or could be a mainspring and incentive to 

 strenuous effort. 



The other day, Field-Marshal von Moltke stated— and there is no reason 

 to disbelieve him — that great as was the storage of ammunition and shells 

 before the war, the enormous demand far exceeded all expectation, and Germany 

 found herself for a time in the same plight as her enemies, but he further 

 stated that Germany's emergence ' from this dangerous position was largely due 

 to the extraordinary organisation, which included not merely the adaptation of 

 their factories for munition purposes, but capacity for work of the people, and 

 the patriotic spirit of the German workmen.' 



This brings me to consider what is probably the most serious feature in 

 our national life to-day, which I have already alluded to under the heading of 

 Education, viz., the relation of employer and workman. It is hopeless, as 

 long as such ideas prevail which seem to do at present, to think of any sound 

 organisation of our industrial system taking place, because the interdependent 

 parts are not arranged (and can never be arranged until we change radically) 

 with respect to the whole. Now as one who has served an apprenticeship, 

 who has taken his money weekly from a tin box with hundreds of other men, 

 who has been a member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (in fact 

 was working as an engine fitter when a Whitworth scholarship made a 

 college career possible), I am the last man to put this evil down entirely 

 to the working man. I know individually he is just as capable of patriotism 

 as any other class. Get him by himself, even the men whose strikes have 

 caused such despondency in the minds of our Allies, and who have seriously 

 jeopardised the very existence of the country, and you will find (except 

 in the sort of case to be found in all classes of society) that he, as an individual, 

 is willing to make sacrifices, and if necessary to give himself for his coimtry. 

 The truth is that the canker which is eating the heart out of our in- 

 dustrial life is due to an entirely wrong attitude of mind. For instance, 

 however much we may sympathise with men who see a loss of employment in 

 the introduction of labour-saving machines, some means should be found by 

 which they can share the benefits to the S'tate and to their employers by the 

 introduction of such machines. I should like, if I had time, to say something 

 about the marvellous organisation of the Ford motor-car works in America, and 

 how it has given the men a share in the returns of a great industry, and 

 thereby induced them to work in a way that has enriched themselves, their 

 employers, and their country. We have many splendid examples of this co- 

 operation in this country. For instance, Messrs. Allen, of Bedford. Again, 

 the employment of women in the engineering industries has taken place in 

 many directions owing to the War. The works with which I am associated 

 could not have undertaken much munition work without it. Some steps should 

 be devised by which this avenue of industry is not closed to women after the 

 War, while justice is secured for the men alongside of whom they are working, 

 and from whom they are in many instances learning mechanical .skill. Again, 

 the questions of piecework and overtime must be seriously considered by the 

 State, and not allowed to become the subject of disastrous disputes. Once 

 more there is the question of a standard wage. It is against the eternal laws 

 of nature to try and keep living beings at one dead level of equality and 

 merit — i.e., it is against the law of the siu'vival of the fittest. The tradeunions 

 have a great opportunity of placing their country and themselves in a leading 

 position amongst nations if they will courageously grapple with a great problem 

 by recognising degrees of merit and corresponding degrees of payment These 

 are a few of the many matters which must be dealt with in the immediate 

 future. 



The matter of labour disputes is so serious as to demand plain speaking. 

 It must be admitted that there are many employers and companies which, to 

 satisfy themselves and their shareholders, extort the largest possible dividends 

 and pay the smallest possible rate of wages, and do so apparently without the 

 slightest idea that the men and boys under them are capable of education and 

 personal influence. Can it be wondered at then that men imder these conditions 



