October 19, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
15 
is worth the effort, for the object is of world-wide 
significance and value. " Is not," Mr. Russell asks in 
bis latest book. The National Being :* 
" Is not the return of man to a natural life on the earth a 
great enough idea to inspire humanity ? Is not the idea 
of a civilisation amid the green trees and fields under the 
smokeless sky alluring ? Yes, but men say, there is no 
* Published. a few days ago by Maunsel and Co., Dublin. Mr. 
Ru-ssell's ideas and those of the movement are expounded week by 
week in "Tiie Irisli Homestead," a little penny paper which everyone 
wlio is interested in economic thought, as applied to rural problems, 
ought to road with attention. 
intellectual life working on the land. No intellectual life 
when man is surrounded by mystery and miracle ! When 
♦he mysterious forces wliicli bring to birth and life are 
•yet undiscovered ; when the earth is teeming with life, 
and the dumb brown lips of the ridge are breathing 
mystery ! Is not the growth of a tree from a tiny cell 
hidden in the earth as provocative of thought as the things 
men learn at the schools ? Is not thought on these things 
more interesting than the sophistries of the newspapers ? 
It is only in Nature, and by thought on the problems of 
Nature, that our intellect grows to any real truth and 
draws near to the Mighty Mind which laid the foundations 
of the world." 
Labour, Capital and the State 
By George H. Roberts, M.P. 
[This article by Mr. George Roberts, Labour M.P. for 
Norwich, should be read in conjunction with Mr Arthur 
Kitson's article on the same subject, published in Land 
& W.\TEK of October 5th. Mr. Kitson is a capitalist 
and an employer of labour, Mr. Roberts speaks for 
labout. And the outstanding fact is that these two 
writers approaching the same difficult question from 
the very opposite sides, agree together in principle.] 
THOSE of the Labour movement who advocate 
that measures be adopted now to sustain in- 
dustrial peace when the war ends are not the 
victims of illusion. They tire conscious of the 
dithculties besetting such advocacy, yet are moved to 
action by considerations of urgent national necessity, as 
well as by desire to ameliorate the lot and life of the 
working-classes. They understand, and none better, 
that the antagonisms of capital and labour have not been 
dispelled by the war, but that a spirit of revolt smoulders 
beneath a comparatively calm exterior. 
Before the war the industrial situation was heavy with 
menace. During the war a splendid subordination to 
national interests, together with certain legislative 
measures, have kept the wheels of indus-try revolving with 
exceptional smoothness and regularity. 
Nevertheless the workers have not abated in the 
slightest their belief in the justice of their demands for 
betterment. Rather is it that war services .will have 
strengthened the conviction that as their laTjour and co- 
operation were indispensable to the defence of the State, 
hereafter the State shall secure that their lives are en- 
riched with a juster share of the wealth they help to 
create. Those acquainted with working-class aims and 
aspirations and the temper pervading that class, view 
with grave misgiving the after-war period unless the con- 
ditions of harmony are arranged immediately. 
When threatened with a peril from without all parties 
and classes united for the common purpose of defending 
the State and the freedom of its citizens. This unity has 
insured military success. But when victory has been 
won there will remain the industrial problem, aggravated 
and foreboding. Coincidently the rapid repair of war- 
wastage and an intensified world competition will require 
that the output of wealth be increased. If industrial 
war follows military war this will not be forthcoming' 
and recovery will be arrested and expansion frustrated, 
with the result that national decline and decay will 
ensue. Recognising enhanced production as the most 
pressing national need, all responsible persons will co- 
operate in devising the means requisite to its attainment. 
Thus both Labour and Capital are urged to consider the 
po.ssibi]ity of continuing the industrial truce which has 
prevailed during the war into the years after the war. 
If the occasion is allowed to slip by, another so favourable 
IS not likely to recur. Common sacrifice and sorrow have 
welded classes into better understanding and relationship, 
so that the general atmosphere is congenial to consulta- 
tion and even far-reaching decision. The alternative is 
industrial strife of corroding bitterness and devastating 
effect, for labour is increasingly coalescent, resourceful, 
and determined. 
fhe detached observer may ask " Why does suspicion 
a.nd antagonism characterise the industrial classes ? " 
to give an answer it is' necessary to scan history in 
conjunction with the facts and forces of the present" 
Professor Thorold Rogers, in Work atui Wages, states 
that " for nearly five centuries the legislature had declared 
that labour partnership, that is associations of working- 
men for the purpose of selling their labour collectively 
to the best advantage, were under the ban of the law. 
The motive for this repression was never concealed. It 
was designed in order to increase and secure rents and 
profits at the cost of wages." Quoting further from the 
same source—" Employers will get cheap labour if they 
can ; it is the business of the State to prevent them 
getting it so cheaply that they imperil the future of the 
race by the process ; and it is the business of particular 
crafts of workmen to sell their labour at as good a price 
as they can." Herein is disclosed the cause of clashing 
interest and existent embitterment. Labour, progres- 
sive and enlightened, sees that hard battling against the 
employing and possessing classes has been necessary to 
secure concessions. It takes stock of the violent contrasts of 
opulence and penury, and refuses to believe these con- 
ditions are predestined, or that economic law is fixed and 
unchangeable. It observes, too, that rarely, if ever, are 
the workers invited to share in growing prosperity. Hav- 
ing had to contest every point of advance, its policy is 
ordered accordingly and will naturally be adhered to 
unless and until other methods bring industrial conditions 
into greater harmony with physiological law and moral 
principles. Given a mutual recognition of national need, 
combined with the improved spirit of the period, industrial 
classes should seize the opportunity to fashion a saner 
pohcy based on co-operation to give the best in substitu- 
tion for that of grudgingly yielding the least. 
To achieve this something approaching a revolution 
must occur in the mental attitude of employers and em- 
ployed. The former must shed antipathy to trade unions, 
abandon the claim to do as they like with businesses, 
and acknowledge that in engaging human beings they 
become trustees of the State and responsible for insuring 
to labour the wherewithal to live decentlv and contentedly. 
Class conflict will be softened proportionately as they 
succeed in creating a community of interest between 
themselves and their workpeople. 
Working class requirements can be sunnuarised in the 
phrase — " SuiTficienc*y and vSecurity." So long as wages 
are inadequate and insecure industrial unrest will abide 
to weaken the nation's productive powers. Employers 
must cease to regard labour as a commodity to be bartered 
at will or caprice. Labour is a human quality which only 
yields its fullest in response to considerate treatment, 
whereby the fruits of industry are diffused so as to accord 
the largest comfort and the widest hope to all. In the 
greatest possible output of wealth lies an identity of 
interest for Capital, Labour and the State. Yet it is not 
sufficient merely to contemplate the fulness with which 
wealth is produced. The manner of its distribution is 
vital, for except this is equitable and just, consistent and 
efficient effort on the part of labour is discouraged. It is 
demonstrable that the productivity of labour tends to 
approximate to its reward. Cheap labour produces meagre 
results, inasmuch as that the clearest thinkers perceive 
that well-paid labour is the most economic. Hitherto the 
earning of high wages has not been fostered, with the 
result that national output has never been fully extended. 
Experience gained during the war proves this. Despite 
