August 24, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
EMPIRE HOUSE, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.G 
Telephone: HOLBORN 282S 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24. 1916 
CONTENTS 
PAGE 
German Chivalry. By Louis Raemaekers i 
Work after the War. (Leading Article) 3 
Nature of the Somme Offensi\'e. Bj' Hilaire Belloc 4 
The Establishment of Poland. — IL 12 
The Invasion of Belgium. By Colonel Feyler 13 
How Aeroplanes are Used in War. By A Corre- 
spondent 14 
A Strategic Retreat. By Patrick MacGill 16 
Furloughs Among the Fells. By William T. Palmer 18 
Greenmantle. By John .Buchan K) 
The West End 22 
Random Notes 24 
Kit and Ecjuipment xiii. 
WORK AFTER THE WAR 
A lTHOUGH the war is not nearly ended tliere 
/^ is an ever-increasing anxiety with regard to the 
r — ^ industrial problems which will arise after the 
war. Looked at from one point of view the 
prospect is extremely gloomy. Some millions of men 
will be discharged from the army, many hundreds of 
thousands of men and \\'omen will be discharged from 
mimition works, and it is not easy to see how this great 
multitude of ex-employees is immediately to find new 
employment. Hence we have on all hands a vague 
demand that something must at once be done by the 
State to meet these post-war problems. The Socialists 
are the most definite. They demand that the State 
shall take over the whole organisation of industry and 
])rovide work for everybody at good wages. But no govern- 
ment could possibly undertake, at a moment's notice, the 
gigantic task of organising all the industries of the United 
Kingdom. Whatever the Government may do in the way 
of temporary relief measures, the major pai't of the organi- 
sation of our industries must be left in the hands which 
now control it. No government official can go out into 
the world and look for business as a private employer 
must do if he wants to make a profit for himself and to 
pay wages to his workpeople. Government organisation 
of industry for the purpose of providing work for the 
unemployed always resolves itself into setting a certain 
number of people to work on unprofitable jobs and paying 
them wages out of the money made by private persons, 
both employers and employed. II that process is continued 
far enough it can only lead to national bankruptcy. 
But while dismissing the Socialist demands it is idle 
to ignore the economic difficulties which will have to be 
overcome. To deal with all those difficulties witi?iu the 
scope of the present article is impossible, but on one point 
it is desirable to lay special stress, namely, the artificial 
difficulties which will be created by the desire of the trade 
unions to revert to the old practice of restricting output. 
From one point of view the temptation to restrict out- 
put is perfectly intelligible. When a number of men are 
working on a job, say building a house, they naturally 
argue to themselves that if they can spin out that job 
by working at a slow stroke they will secure their own 
position for a longer period. They do not trouble to 
reflect that if the cost of producing houses is increased 
artificially by slow methods of working, fevyer houses will 
be built and fewer house-builders employed. This 
consideration runs through all our industries, but 
unfortunately the relationship between emplo}'er and 
employed is such that very few workmen are able to 
realise that their permanent interest is to be found in 
the efficiency of their own labour. Tlie problem arises 
in an acute form in connection with the fixing of rates 
for piece-work. The natural impulse of a workman who 
is working by the piece is to turn out as much work as he 
can so as to earn the maximum sum per day. But 
experience has shown that when a workman or a body of 
workmen begin to earn at pi<,'Cc-work considerably above 
the normal rate of day wages the employer, or the em- 
ployer's foreman, will cut the rate so as to bring the men's 
daily earnings down to about the current daily rate. It 
is largely because of this danger that workmen agree 
among themselves that they will not work beyond a 
certain pace, arguing quite rightly that there is no reason 
why they should exert themselves if by so doing they 
earn no more than they can e un when working at 
a leisurely pace. The necessary result is national loss. 
The man is not using his faculties to their full power ; 
the employer is not using his machinery and other fixed 
plant to its full power ; the whole cost of production is 
increased and the country is handicapped in its com- 
petition with nations where a more intelligent system 
of working prevails. Numerous devices have been tried 
with the object of getting rid of this evil. There is, for 
example, the premium bonus system, where the firm and 
the workman agree together upon the length of time 
that a particular job should occupy and the value of any 
saving realised by reducing that time is shared equally 
between the two parties. But even here there is a danger 
that any zeal displayed by the Workmen may accrue to 
their disadvantage in the fixing of rates for some, future 
job. A more fundamental remedy often advocated is the 
sharing of profits between employer and employed. This 
has been done with success in such institutions as gas 
works and in a few other cases, but it is not a general 
remedy, and cannot be for- this conclusive reason,- that 
the profit of most businesses is more dependent upon the 
skill of the management in buying and selling than upon 
the additional amount of energy that the manual worker 
can put into his work. 
The real trouble arises from the lack of confidence 
between employer and employed. Where complete 
confidence and good will exist most difficulties can be 
overcome. If the workpeople know that they will be 
allowed to enjoy, not merely temporarily but per- 
manently, any increased wages that they can earn by 
increased exertion, then they will do their best, and they 
and the firm and the whole country will prosper ac- 
cordingly. That is the key to the whole situation. We 
cannot in fact solve the industrial problem except by 
moral forces. Unless w'e can create a mutual understand- 
ing between employer and employed no material reforms 
will be of permanent benefit. On the one hand the 
workman has to realise that his interest lies in doing the 
best w^ork he can so as to increase to the utmost the output 
of national wealth ; on the other, the employer has to 
remember that his business is not only to increase 
material wealth but also to study the health and content- 
ment of the human beings he employs.. Much that is 
now being done to improve industrial conditions will be 
of permanent value after the war. In scores of munition 
factories arrangements have been' made for the comfort 
and the convenience of the workpeople that have added 
to the efficiency of their work and preserved their health. 
At the same time the definite bargains made to prevent 
the cutting of piece rates have stimulated men who 
previously idled away half their daj's to put forth their 
full strength. It is on these lines that w-e have to work 
after the war in order to secure, on the one hand, economy 
of production, on the other, the well-being of the pro- 
ducer. 
