14 
LAND & WATER 
November 15, 1917 
increased prices, and thus the wages would go no further 
than before. 
A certain amount of unemployment after a war is, as has 
l)een already said, an inevitable evil. This is partly due to 
the fact that the demand for any particular kind of skilled 
labour does not necessarily increase just when the supply 
of that particular labour has become suddenly augrnented- 
The more rigid the hnes of demarcation between different 
trades and occupations, the more difficult it is to adjust the 
supply to the demand. In a purely agricultural country the 
disbandment of an army causes no difficulties of this kind. 
Food is needed, and all can be turned on to the production of 
food. Similarly, if every factory worker could work equally 
well in any type of factory, the problem of unemployment 
would become a fairly simple one. 
It must not be supposed that because objection has been 
taken to the introduction of a thirty-hours week as the 
standard or ideal to which all labour should tend to conform, 
there may not be occasions when work is temporarily more or 
less a fixed quantity and when consequently it may be a wise 
poUcy to distribute work more evenly by reducing appre- 
ciably the number of hours worked per week. This has often 
been the case, for example in the cotton industry, where 
owing to temporary shortage of raw material, it has been 
found necessary to reduce the output of the mills all round, 
which can most conveniently be done by closing the mills 
on certain days. This, however, is an expedient only to be 
resorted to when under special circumstances production is 
Gompulsorily diminished. It would be a very bad system 
to adopt as a general rule at a time when the whole object 
should be to increase production to the utmost. And even 
if a thirty-hours week were introduced to meet a special 
emergency, such as the reorganisation of industry after a great 
war, there is always the tendency to look upon the shorter 
week as a normal state of things and to regard as a grievance, 
or even as an injustice, the return to a longer working week 
when, at a later date, industry has returned to more ordinary 
conditions. 
Diminishing Output 
Restriction of work all round diminishes output — diminishes 
in fact, the production of wealth which it is a vital necessity 
to promote if 
(1) The present standard of living is not to be lowered. 
(2) We are to retain our position in our own markets and in 
those of the world. 
The standard of living of some sections of the community 
'has during the war been exceptionally high in spite of the 
increased prices of commodities in general. It is hardly 
likely that in time of peace such incomes as, for example, 
those now being obtained by people engaged in munition work 
will represent the ordinary wages of labour, and it may be 
taken for granted that when these workers return to their 
normal occupations, there will be a much smaller margin for 
luxuries than at present. At the same time, it may safely be 
said that taking the workers as a whole, there will be a demand 
for considerably higher rates of wages than those which pre- 
vailed prior to the war. Bnt how, it may be asked, can so 
largely increased a wages bill be . met ? Many are prepared 
to answer promptly, " Out of profits," but this, as the Labour 
Leaders are themselves fully aware, is by no means a com- 
plete answer to the question. 
It is true, no doubt, that in some undertakings, and possibly 
also in some entire industries, the margin of profit calculated 
over a sufficiently long period to allow for ups and downs 
of trade is sufhcient to admit of an increase of wages, but in 
such cases the increase would probably fall far short of the 
workers' demands. In all the more highly organised industries 
Trade Union action is by means of collective bargaining able 
to secure the highest rate that the trade will afford. 
The real source of wages is the value of the work done. 
If this is increased wagfss can be raised, if not, no such rise 
is possible. The value of the work done may be increased 
in three ways : , 
(i) Improved methods of production resulting in greater 
ciuantity and quality of output. 
(z) Greater skill or greater industry on the part of those 
engaged in the work. 
(3) \ higher price obtained for the article produced or for 
the service rendered. 
The last of Ihese is merely obtaining an advantage for one 
set of workers at the expense of the rest of the community, 
and from a social point of view could only be justified if that 
particular kind of labour — having due regard to conditions 
of work, skill required, expense of training, etc. — Were less 
well remunerated than other work with which it may be com- 
pared. 
It is on the two foiraer that wc must rely for any appreci- 
able increase in wages as a whole. Ingenuity, invention. 
scientific progress, enterprise, the introduction on a large scale 
of labour saving appliances, the well directed use of all our 
powers both intellectual and physical will secure an increased 
production of wealth, and of this increase all who have con- 
tributed to it may well demand their share. 
Increased Production 
That after-the-war production must be increased rather 
than diminished can hardly be questioned. The necessity 
to restore th^ economic strength of the country, to replace 
the wealth that has been destroyed during the war and to 
secure the conditions of materiarimprovement in the future, 
can hardly be disputed. But how is this to be accomplished ? 
The object is national as well as personal and this seems to 
justify the placing of the industrial question on an entirely 
new footing. If men are to work for national ends they must 
be persuaded of the necessity and advantage of such work 
and their co-operation in it will then be whole-hearted and 
cificienl. 
The present relations of capital and'labour seldom admit of 
the wage-earners taking a real interest in, or feeling a proper 
responsibihty for the work in which they are engaged. It is 
not to be wondered at, therefore, that "demands made as to 
vvages, as to hours and other conditions of work should be at 
times altogether unreasonable. They know very little of the 
conditions under which their work is carried on. They know 
probably nothing of the difficulties of obtaining raw material, 
of finding markets, and of competing with rivals. This state 
of things must necessarily be altered if workpeople generally 
are to play the part that is expected of them in the coming 
economic struggle. As it is well expressed in the recent 
report of the committee of which Mi". J. H. Whitley, M.P., 
the Deputy Speaker, is chairman : 
In the interests of the community it is vital that after the 
■ war co-operation of all classes, estabUshed during the war, 
should continue, and more especially with regard to the 
relations between employers and employed. For securing 
improvement in the latter, it is essential that any proposals 
put forward should offer to workpeople the means of attaining 
improved conditions of employment and a higher standard of 
comfort generally, and involve the enlistment of their active 
and continuous co-operation in the promotion of industry. 
The report goes on to recommend the formation of joint 
standing Industrial Councils composed of representatives of 
employers and employed. These councils would, amongst 
other things, " settle the general principles concerning the 
conditions of employment, including the methods of fixing, 
paying, and readjusting wages, ha\ing regard to the need for 
securing to the workpeople a share in the increased prosperity ■ 
of the industry." This seems to be a move in the right direction. 
When the workers have a voice-in settling the conditions under 
which they work, and when they feel sure that they are 
personally and directly interested in the work on which they 
are engaged, there is no reason to doubt that the necessity for 
the most strenuous effort after the war will be clearly recognised 
by them, and that they will not fail to take a full share in 
this great national struggle for economic stability and com- 
mercial predominance. 
At a meeting of the Feminists' Union held last month at 
Budapest in support of women's suffrage, according to the 
Pester Lloyd, the deputy Canon Giesswein urged that this reform 
would do away with the monstrosity of a double standard of 
morals, and politics would be based on pure humanity. l>r. 
f?ath said that women had amply proved their right to the vote 
by war-work of all kinds. Dr. Katona declared that civilisation 
could everywhere be measured by the degree in 'which all in- 
habitants shared the material and moral possessions of a country 
Women's suffrage, both active and passive, was indispensable. 
Madame Lamberger moved a vote of confidence in the Govern- 
ment, and demanded that women's suffrage should not be regarded 
as a party question, but as an important part of the democratic 
reforms with which urgent social questions were bound up. 
Commenting on the entry into the war of the South .\niericaa 
States, the Hamburger Fremdenblatt writes : It has now gone so 
far, that countries which up till now have been lieutral, and to 
which Germany has not done the slightest wrong, have ranged 
themselves on the side of our enemies, without even the customary 
forms of courtesy. Of coiirse, this has happened not from a 
Voluntary decision on their part, but in consequence of the 
pressure which the. Entente has put on their Governments. On 
account of the enotmous distance between these small States and 
Germany, they run no danger of coming into actual conflict with 
Germany. Hence for the present, their breach with us has no 
direct consequence for them, and so thty yielded to the pressure 
of the Entente without any serious resistance. Probably they 
will also allow without protest— as Peru, for example, has already 
done by seizing German ships lying in Pemvian harbours— that 
the expropriation campaign against German world commerce 
be extended to their lands. Apart from that the whole pres.sure 
of the Entente on these small lands has scarcely any meaning. 
What President Wilson and his Allies are amiing at. is the 
radical and rapid destruction of our economic world interests. 
