444 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION F. 



far as these various bodies were approved by the State they would enjoy far- 

 reaching powers. 



Approval by the State should depend on the observance 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 year 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 to throw 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 preferable to State interference, 

 and there is a clearly articulated distrust on both sidee 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 elasticity 

 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 unconnected 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 organisations shall in 

 all their agreements be loyally and honestly supported by their members. 

 Success depends 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 organisation has yet to be formulated, but what is here 

 proposed would form a definite step in advance, and the very elasticity of the 

 system would be a good augury for the future. 



Among the innovations recently introduced into this country, and one calcu- 

 lated to have important effects on our industrial well-being, is automatic and 

 semi-automatic machinery. We have been accustomed to the use of labour-saving 

 machines — indeed, this country was the birthplace of many of them. The re- 

 equipment, however, of our factories for war purposes, both in tools and work- 

 people, has wi-ought a revolution comparable with that effected by the intro- 

 duction of the steam-engine. 



From the point of view of craftsmanship our old system had much in its 

 favour. Our mechanics in certain trades had to be highly skilled, for the de- 

 scription of work turned out made considerable demands on the operative. In 

 America and German}' standardisation has been carried very much further than 

 in this country, and consequently repetition work was much more generally 

 practised than with us. 



One may grieve over the pas.sing of our old methods, as one is sometimes 

 tempted to regret the days of cottage industries. Neither, however, is compatible 

 with modern conditions, and an important part of the work of reconstruction and 

 reorganisation will be connected with standardisation and the further introduction 

 of repetition work. This will call for the exercise of careful and experienced 

 industrial statesmanship, if trouble is to be avoided, for agreements will have 

 to be framed which will in the long run work equitably and satisfactorily to all 

 the parties concerned. 



A Committee of this Association has been investigating for the past two years 

 into the extent to which women have recently replaced men in industry. A 

 certain amount of exaggeration exists as to the number of women who have 

 entered our factories or undertaken services left vacant by men who have joined 

 the Forces. The total number is in round figures about 600,000, as against five 

 million men who have joined either the Navy or the Army as a consequence of 

 the war. 



The entry of large numbers of women into industry has been viewed with 

 a certain amount of alarm by the men ; and Trade Unions have naturally 

 stipulated, where possible, that these women shall receive the same rates of pay 



