September 7, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
3' 
LAND & WATER 
EMPIRE HOUSE, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C 
Telephone: HOLBORN 2828 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 1916 
CONTENTS 
Canute the Second. By Lou^ ^^^" f^ 
Mutual Understanding. (Leading Article 
Roumanian Operations. By Hdaue Be loc 
German Power in Africa. By Lewis K- Fieenian 
AnoTher Problem in Strategy. ^ By Co onel Feyler 
Welfare Work in Factories. (A I^e^'i^w) „ 
A Cellar at Nouex-les-Mines. By Patrick MacGiU 
Aeroplanes in Warfare. By a Correspondent 
Greenmantle. By John Buchan 
Union Jack Club Fund 
The West End 
Town and Country 
Kit and Equipment 
PAGE 
I 
3 
4 
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II 
12 
13 
15 
17 
21 
22 
24 
xiii. 
MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING 
A WEEK or two ago, writing on work after 
\ the war we expressed the opinion that the key 
/-\ to the whole industrial situation is conhdence 
■^ -^and good^will between capital and labour. W e 
cannot solve the industrial problem except by moral 
forces Unless we can create a mutual understanding 
between employer and employed, no material reforms 
will be of permanent benetit." The same belief was 
expressed'in different language by the President o the 
Trades' Union Congress in his address at Birmingham, 
when he stated, " that we shall never get any lasting 
industrial peace except on the lines of industrial demo- 
cracy " Mr. Gosling made his meaning yet more clear 
by the remarks which preceded this statement. They 
are cited here because they sum up in a small compass 
the views of Labour on this most important question: 
^Ve workmen do not ask that wc should be adm. ted to 
;nv sha" in what is essentially the employers own 
Sness-that is, in those matters which do not concem 
us directly in tlie industry or employment in which ^^e 
mav be engaged. We do not seek to sit on the board of 
d rectors or to interfere with the buying of matenaU, 
o whh the selling of the product. But in the dai^ 
maiTaKement of thf employment in which we spend our 
vvorking lives, in the atinosphere and under the conditions 
in wh ch we have to work, in the hours of beginning and 
ending work, in the conditions of remuneration, and 
even fn The manners and practices of the foremen with 
whom we haT-e to be in contact, in all these matters 
we eel that we, as workmen, have a right to a voice- 
even to an equal voice-with the management itself. 
To what extent such co-operation in management is 
possible is bound to lead to differences of opinion but 
the same idea was present in the mind of the Lord Mayor 
of Birmingham, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, himself a large 
employer of labour, when he suggested that Trade Union 
leaders should be occasionally admitted to the councils 
of employers and allowed to sec a little bit more of the 
eame from the inside. Both turn to the new spirit which 
has been engendered by the war as a good omen of 
greater harmony in the future. A very differen and 
a vastly wider view of life has been given to practically 
the whole population of these islands during the last 
two years. Here and there may exist small sections ot 
selfish and stupid persons -selfishness and ^U^P^dity are 
nearly always ^Y^o'^y^^^f -^h^/^^%^'°t'ter has 
ennobling influences, but they hardly count. Never has 
an occasion been more favourable for placing on perma- 
nent foundations better relationship between employer 
and employed. The regimental spirit is not unknown 
tnldustrial life, but we should like to, see it much mor 
common. Every man who has served m the arm^ 
for however short a period and in whatever rank, is 
aware it is a spirit to which all must contribute equally 
and in which discipline and self-sacrifice play their full 
part. Whatever else may be the outcome pi the war, 
at least we shall be a far better disciplined people than 
ever before, and as every soldier knows, the basis of 
discipline on active service, of the discipline which wirts 
victories is —mutual understanding. 
One aspect of this question which is too often over- 
looked is that the struggles and troubles of industrial 
life concern every unit in the nation. No one can rightly 
stand aside and say : " This is no concern of mine." 
any more than he can speak of the war not concerning 
him because he is neither making munitions nor in the 
fighting-line. Take the insensate fetish of Cheapness, 
to which we have all bowed the knee in the past -a 
fetish in whose worship more human lives have been 
sacrificed than to any Moloch or Dahomey idol. By 
insisting on cheapness, without thought of how it has 
been effected, a premium is too often placed on bad em- 
ployment • and the master who desires to improve 
conditions of labour, is prevented in practice by the 
thoughtless act of the consumer. In other words, 
mutual understanding must not be confined to employer 
and employed, but must extend to the consumer, that 
is to say, to the whole community. 
We now recognise that commerce and industry are 
as important in preserving peace or waging war as bay- 
onets, bombs, and battleships, and that failure to organise 
and develop them on modern lines and in accordance ' 
with the ideas and circumstances prevailing in other 
countries is to invite defeat not only in peace but in 
war We can never revert to the old convention that 
trade was only the business of the person following it. 
for we have seen how mighty and far reaching are the 
issues involved in it. The demand for a Ministry of 
Commerce has been insistent for some time past ; now 
arises a cry for a Ministry of Labour. Both of these 
Government departments exist in a shape at the moment, 
one in the Board of Trade, the other in the Ministry of 
Munitions. How near to absolute downfall the feckless 
and haphazard constitution of the Board of Trade has 
brought the Empire, it would not be politic to say. There 
is no personal blame beyond that no man- in the last 
thirty years has arisen who was strong enough to destroy 
the old ramshackle structure, and build on its founda- 
tions a modern department provided with the necessary 
powers to deal with modern questions. Wc should like 
to see a close examination instituted at once into the 
future organisation of these two departments wliicn 
must always be most closely related one to the other, tor 
we take it for granted that the Ministry of Munitions will 
continue in one form or other. Most of ouf Govern- 
ment Departments as a matter of fact 'have sprung into 
existence in this chance manner. 
One result of this earnest endeavour on b<sth sides to 
draw closer, will be, we trust, an end of recrimination. 
In the period immediately preceding the war, there was 
an outburst of class abuse, which all realise to-day wa^ 
not only grossly offensive, but most unjust. Since the 
war began, offence has been caused by strictures passed 
upon other classes of the community by those who too 
often misunderstood the essential causes m dispute, it 
is purposeless to disinter the facts, but we would urge on 
publicists the wisdom of withholding censure upon any 
class of the community until the full circumstances are 
known It is a common ^\-eakness in the British character 
to sit in judgment on his neighbour and to pronounce 
sweeping ex parte decisions. The British workman has 
shown up splendidly in the war; but let us remember his 
good qualities which we praise so highly to-day existed 
before the war began and will continue when it is over 
An appreciation of this truth mil go far towards that 
mutual understandine for which we plead. 
