January 17, 1915 
LAND & WATER 
15 
The First Industrial Council 
By Jason 
ONE of our oldest industries has taken the lead in 
forming an Industrial Council. We all know the 
¥ive Towns, even those of us who have never seen 
a potbank at Burslem or Stoke, from Mr. Arnold 
Bennett's vivid pictures. Two centuries ago they were, af, 
they are to-day, the centre of the pottery manufacture. At 
that time the earthenware was made from the finer clay of 
Staffordshire — yellow or red marl which was glazed with 
galena, a cnished raw lead ore brought from Derbyshire, but 
that day has now disappeared. To-day the industry draws 
its raw material from all parts of the world ; china clay from 
Cornwall, ball clay from Dorset, flints from Normandy and 
lately from Norfolk, felspar from Derbyshire and from Nor- 
way, and bones from South America. 
Why, it may be asked, is Staffordshire still the home of the 
pottery industry if it has lost this essential advantage ? 
The answer 'is partly custom ; partly the presence of coal, 
because cheap fuel is an important element in the manufacture 
of pottery ; partly the skill of its workmen, descendants of 
independent copyholders, for there is evidence that the 
enterprise and initiative of the early potters were con- 
nected with this free status ; partly the histon,' of Josiah 
Wedgwood. W'e are apt to think of Wedgwood in connection 
rhiefly with new designs and new wares, such as black 
Kgyptian and jasper. But readers of Commander Josiah 
Wedgwood's book on Stoffordshire Pottery will be more im- 
jircxtd with another side of his career,' the push and per- 
tinacity that he showed in driving through the House of 
(ommbns the Bill for making the Trent and Mersey Canal. 
Tor in the early days of the Industrial Revolution it was 
canal transport that determined very largely where an industry 
was to fincl its home, and in those critical days the Stafford- 
shire potters had at their head'a man of great enterprise and 
perseverance who provided just the driving force that was 
liteded. The cutting of the canal reduced freights by 80 per 
cent., and for that immense boon the five towns are indebted 
to the great Josiah, who was a skilful potter and a considerable 
artist, but above all things, as his great-great-grandson has 
jjut it, a man " with a restless passion for experiment and 
novelty, coupled with an almost American love for the exten- 
sion of business — particularly profitable business." 
Pottery is no longer, as it once was, an art as simple as 
rooking. The early master-jwtters made their pots in sheds 
behind their dwelling-houses, alongside the cow-shed. " They 
dug their own clay," as we learn from Commander Wedg- 
wood's book, " often in front of their own front doors. The 
Wedgwoods at least owned and dug their own coal wherewith 
to fire the oven. It was a peasant industry, carried on by 
the family among the pigs and fowls ; and when they were 
not making show pieces for presentation, they made butter 
pots, in which fanners might market their butter at Utto.xeter." 
Ihese days of a picturesque simplicity arc long past, and 
the potteries luesent a very different aspect now. The 
industry includes a number of different processes. A large 
lirm will carry out all these processes, buf there arc a number of 
Jirms that speciah.se in different processes. 
In 1014 there were some 648 factories under the special 
regulations m force for the industry, of whicli just under 500 
were m the Potteries' district. The industr>' has been loosely 
organised in the past. There has been one employers' organi- 
sation for collective bargaining, the North Stafifordshirc 
Pottery Manufacturers' Association and several associations 
for fixing prices, representing the manufacturers of general 
earthenware, sanitary earthenware, tile, china, jet and' 
Rockingliam (the famihar black teapot and brown jug). 
Organisiition is much less developed on the side of labour. 
Of tlie workpeople, some 70,001) in all, only about a third are 
to bo found in a Trade Union. The chief uiiion is the National 
Society of Pottery Operatives, which has absorbed several 
sectional unions. This union has grown rapidly during the 
war and now has a membership of 15,000. The' Packers and 
^rate-makers belong to the National Union of General Labour, 
and there is a Union of United Ovcnmen, about 1,000 strong. 
Organisation of the Council 
It is appropriate that one of the two leading nantrs in the 
histor>' of the new Council should be a Wedgwood. Major 
Frank Wedgwood, brother of the free lance in the House of 
Commons, and great-great-grandson of the great Josiah 
has acted as Chairman of the conferences in which tiie project 
has been shapixl, and the line of social reorganisation with 
svhich he has been associated may prove in the event to be as 
important as the technical developments for which his 
ancestor was responsible. 
With his name must be coupled in this connection that of a 
well-known Trade Union leader, Mr. S. Clowes, J. P., of the 
National Society of Pottery Workers. These two would, 
however, be the last to claim any special merit. The Council 
is a perfectly spontaneous development, which had its origin 
in a series of private and informal conferences held last spring 
to discuss the industrial outlook in general. All the leading 
names in the industry have been represented in the dis- 
cussions, although it is not invidious to say that it was fortunate 
that the bearers of the best-known names should be admirably 
fitted to preside over them. These private conferences had 
resulted in a decision to hold an official conference, repre- 
sentative of all the principal organisations in the industry, 
before the Whitley Committee issued its report, to discuss a 
plan for organismg an Industrial Council. 
These plans are now matured and they provide for a Council, 
with not more than thirty members on each side. The Council 
may appoint an independent chairman. If the chairman is a 
manufacturer, the vice-chairman is to be a workman and 
\ice-yersa. The Council will meet at least quarterly and 
appoint an Executive Committee, and Standing Committees 
representative of the different needs of the industry. It may 
appoint special committees and co-opt outsiders for special 
purposes, a veiy necessary provision in view of the scope of 
the Council's duties. The expenses will be met by a lew on 
.Manufacturers' Associations and Trades I'nions. A Iwo- 
tiiirds majority will bo required to carrj' a resolution. The 
Association of General Earthenware Manufacturers select 
eleven representatives and the other associations of employers- 
smaller numbers, Yorkshire and Scotland contributing one 
member each. On the workmen's side, the provisional 
arrangement is that the National Society of Pottery Workers 
will elect 14 members, the United Ovenmen six, the Natioiial 
Union of Clerks (the Pottery section), the Ceramic Printers, 
the Packers and Crat<; makers, two members each. There 
are to be women representatives. It is interesting to note that 
the Commercial Travellers have asked for inclusion on the 
workers' side and their association will contribute two repre- 
sentatives. It is interesting also to note that the difficulty 
caused by the fact that unioqs are spread over different 
industries, can be got over by some such scheme of repre- 
sentation, as this for the packers and crate -makers, who 
Ijelong to the National Union of General Labourers, will be 
represented on the Council, through the union by delegates 
belonging to the trade. 
Objects of the Association 
The objects of the association are set out as foUo^vs : 
" The advancement of the Pottery Industry and of all con- 
nected with it by the association in its government of all 
engaged in the industry'. It will be open to the Cotmcil to 
take any action that' falls within the scope of its general 
object." Its chief work will, however, fall under these heads : 
(a) The consideration of means whereby all manufacturers 
and operatives shall be brought within tlieir respective 
associations. 
(b) Regular consideration of wages, piecework prices, and 
conditions with a view to establishing and maintaining 
equitable conditions throughout the industry. 
(c) To a.ssist the respective associations in the maintenance of 
such selling prices as will afford a reasonable remuneration to 
both employers and employed. 
(>l) The consideration and settlement of all disputes between 
-lifferont parties in the industry which it may not have been 
possible to settle by the existing machinery, and the estab- 
lishment of machinery for dealing with disputes where 
adequate machinery does not exist. 
(e) The regularisation of production and employment as a 
means of insuring to the workpeople the greatest possible 
security of earnings. 
(f) Improvement in conditions with a view to removin'» 
all danger to health in the industry. ° 
'^'Mu'^/'iV'^y "^ processes, the encouragement of research 
and the full utiUsation of their results. 
(h) The provision of facilities for the full consideration and 
utUisation of inventions and improvements designed bv work- 
people and for the adequate safeguarding of the rights of tlie 
itesigners of such improvements. 
(i) Education in all its branches for the industry. 
Ij) The collection of full statistics on wages, making and seliinff 
prices, and average percentages of profits on turnover and 
o., materials, markets,, costs, etc.. and the study and 
