LAND & WATER 
June 12, 1917 
Letters to the Editor 
Cautes of Industrial Discontent 
Sir.- Jason's admirable analysis of the industrial situation 
should command the most serious attention of all who are 
interested in the industrial welfare of this country, and pai^ 
ticularly those engaged in a solution of our labour problems. 
There are, however, one or two elements which have had a 
most disturbing effect upon labour, and which Jason seems to 
have overlooked. I refer (i) to the licence granted to various 
political organisations since the beginning of the war to carry 
on openly an anti- British propaganda, which has thrown 
suspicion" and discredit upon the Allied cause, and white- 
wasljed the enemy's methods and intentions. 
As Jason shows," the working classes have a keen sense of 
justice, and are quick to recognise inconsistencies in the law. 
They cannot understand why one or two of their misguided 
(omVades should be punished for interfering with the output 
of munitions, whilst men like Ramsay MacDonald, Philip 
Snowden, F. W. Jowett, and E. D. Morel are permitted, 
week after week, to poison the minds of thousands and destroy 
their faith in the righteousness of the cause for which their 
countrymen are lighting. Many of these men read the 
Labour Leader, which has studiously falsified the issue from 
tiie beginning. They have noticed the apparent importance 
which these men seem to occupy in the councils of the 
nation, and who, after hampering the Government in the pro- 
secution of the war to the best of their ability, are granted, 
some of them at least, passports to Russia, in Order to 
assist our Ally in settling his domestic difficulties ! 
(2) They have read of the alleged atrocities committed by 
the Germans— (although not in the Labour Leader, which 
has been careful not to inform its readers on this subject) — 
and also of the treatment of German prisoners at Donnington 
Hall, and elsewhere. And they have contrasted this with 
that accorded some of their old chums who have fallen into 
the hands of the enemy ! They have witnessed or read of 
the results of the raids by German aeroplanes upon our open 
towns, and of the military burial honours accorded the per- 
petrators of these murders, and the inscriptions upon their 
tombs, " To brave and gallant foes." And they are bewil- 
dered. They cannot see any differehce between the action 
of the Kaiser in awarding "Captain von Brandenburg the 
Order " Pour le Merite," and that of our own authorities in 
acknowledging a German bbmber to be a brave and gallant 
foe. These mconsistencies arouse suspicion. 
(3) Regarding the scandals connected with the Dardanelles 
and Mesopotamia Expeditions, the industrial classes have not 
been Wind to the vast difference in the treatment accorded to 
certain workmen whose dissatisfaction has delayed the output 
of munitions, and certain pohticians and highly-placed 
miUtary and civil officers whose culpable neghgence has 
caused the death and sufferings of thousands of our best and 
bravest, and seriously prolonged the war ! ^ 
These are a few of the additional causes which have tended 
to dishearten labour and have led to both suspicion and dis- 
content. And on such soil it has not been difficult for the 
various anti-British societies, such as the U.D.C., which 
our complacent rulers still tolerate, to sow the seed which 
may yet bring forth a har\-est of trouble. 
Stamford, July, 1917. , Arthur Kitson. 
Capital and Labour 
Sir, — The report of the Reconstruction Committee on the 
relations between employers and employed, with its sug- 
gestion of setting up National Councils in each industry, is 
excellent so far as it goes, but may 1 point out that a vital 
element to the success of the proposal is that all employers 
and all workpeople should be in their respective organizations. 
In paragraph 23 of their report the Committee recognise this, 
but they make no suggestion as to how it is to be brought 
abQut. Herein hes the cru.K of the whole matter? and it must 
be. faced, otherwise the suggestions of the Committee mean 
nothing more than the setting up of Conciliation Boards, 
which have been common in most industries for many years. 
A.s an employer who has during the last few months 
attended many conferences of employers and employed, 1 
believe the feeling is growing that the State should set up 
some form of machinery to secure that, at any rate in our 
staple trades, every worker should belong to his Trade Union, 
and every employer to his Trade Association. In fact at 
one meeting a resolution was passed to this effect. 
May I be permitted to make a proposal which may serve 
as a step in this direction. Let tlie Government announce 
that they are prepared to grant a Charter to any industry in 
which the Masters' 'Federation employs 75 per cent., of the 
workpeople, and the Trade Union represents 75 per cent, of 
the operatives, provided that application is made jointly by the 
two bodies, which charter shall, inter alia., make it illegal for 
anyone but members of the Trade Union to be employed in 
that industry, or for any employer to operate unless he is a 
member of the Trade Association. The charter should also 
lay down that the industry should be controlled by a Joint 
Board of employers and employees, presided over by a 
Chairman appointed by the State, and further that statistics 
relating to the industry should be published yearly, showing 
the cost of production per £100 of net value of product, to- 
gether with the percentage of average net profit on the goods 
produced, and all particulars with reference to markets, 
wages, conditions of work, health, etc. In other words, the 
industry should be laid bare, and all the facts made public. 
Such a charter would safeguard the interests of employers and 
employed, and also those of the community, and would fore- 
stall any suggestion that the community was being ex- 
ploited by a combination of employers and workpeople. 
This proposal I submit the Government can put forward 
without taking any undue responsibility. They would simyjly 
offer facilities. If no trades availed themselves of these 
facilities no harm would be done. If on the other hand one, 
two, or half a dozen trades applied for charters, a very useful 
social experiment could be made, which if successful would 
go a long way towards solving the problems of industry. 
I attach the greatest importance to the disclosure of all 
the facts relating to the various industries. Let 
employers and employed know the facts, and they 
can be trusted to deal with them in a common-sense 
way. It is precisely because Labour at present does not 
know the facts,, and because their only way of ascertaining 
what wages and industry can carry is by making periodical 
demands after the manner of the Income Tax collector, that 
friction arises. In truth it is not possible to conceive a system 
or want of system, better calculated to cause trouble and 
unrest. The first essential to a better understanding between 
Capital and Labour is that all the cards shall be laid 
on the table, and all the facts known, and that can only be 
done when the industry is thoroughly organized . 
I submit that the suggestion I have made above is soufid, 
reasonable, and practicable, and can be safely initiated at once. 
Surely if a majority of on6 can turn out a Government it is 
not asking too much that a three-fourths majority of emploj-ers 
and employees should rule an industry. 
New times demand new measures and new men. 
The world moves on ; and in due course 
Outgrows the laws that in our fathers' days were be.st 
And after we are gone a better scheme will be devised 
By wiser men than we. 
T. B. Johnston. 
Managing Director, Pountney & Co., Limited. 
The Bristol Pottery, Bristol. July, 1917. 
The Garden of Eden 
Sir. — As a regular reader of your most interesting and ably- 
conducted periodical I have felt emboldened to take exception 
to the words which occur in the second line of your leader in 
the current number. I mean the words — "We never for- 
get the legend " — of the Garden of Eden. ' 
In my opinion the' expression is rather an infehcitous one, 
referring as it does to the account given to us in Holy 
Scripture, of the beginning of our race. A more carefiil 
perusal of the first few chapters of the same book, and the 
last few too for that matter, give food for anxious thought 
at the present moment, and is calculated to ensure us against 
♦he familiarity which breeds contempt. 
The Higher Drive, Purley. F. V. C. Sergeant. 
Silkworm Gut 
Sir. — We have pleasure to advise you, that the' season's 
crop of silkworm gut in Spain is completed. The manufac- 
ture has begun, and during August, deliveries in this country 
may be expected. So far as can be seen, the quantities and 
quahties are an average. The large quantities required for 
surgical work due to the war, and the larger expenses all 
round, are estimated to increase the cost some 50 to 65 per 
cent. Anglers, therefore, must be prepared to pay a consid- 
erable increase in price for gut casts, and general gut work 
of all kinds i\\ the immediate future. 
For Hardy Brothers (Alnwick) Ltd., 
John James Hardy, Managing Director. 
Alnwiclf, J}ily ^917, , 
