had fixed general minimum piece-rates and 29 had fixed piecework basis time-rates. The general minimum time-rates for unskilled and semi-skilled adult male workers varied from approximately, 44s. to 66s. a week and for unskilled and semi-skilled female workers from 28s. to 38s. 6d. a week (excluding a special London rate of 40s. fixed by the Milk Distributive Board); some of the time-rates fixed for skilled workers or foremen reached a high level such as 93s., 94s. and (in one case) 96s. a week. The range of these several rates is illustrated by the annexed diagrams marked X and Y.

11. Some of the wage-scales adopted by the Boards are of an elaborate character, as in the case of the Boot and Shoe Repairing Trade Board, whose scale of piece-rates contains some 500 different items, and of the Brush and Broom Trade Board where there are about 1,500. Indeed this feature is not confined to the newly-formed Boards, as the Chain-Making Board formed under the Act of 1909, has also adopted an elaborate scale of piece-rates. It is admitted that in some instances the rate fixed as a minimum has been, not a minimum, but the current rate of wages paid under existing trade agreements; and cases have been brought to our notice in which a Board has not really considered the question of minima at all, but has been content to adopt and make compulsory a scale of wages agreed upon by the organisations of employers and workmen outside the boardroom. Among the

Boards which have followed this course are the Wholesale Mantle and Costume Board, the Dressmaking Board (E. & W.), the Ready-made Tailoring Board, the Brush and Broom Board, the Stamped or Pressed Metalwares Board, the Perambulator and Invalid Carriage Board and the Coffin Furniture Board. Extreme instances of this class of wage regulation are afforded by the Stamped or Pressed Metalwares Board, on whose behalf the fixing of a higher minimum rate for an adult worker of six years' experience in the trade than for one of less experience was justified on the ground that otherwise the more experienced man might successfully compete for work with the man of less experience; and by the Brush and Broom Board, which is said to have raised the minimum rate for women in order to prevent their competing with male labour.

12. The movement of Trade Board wages during and for some time after the war was almost uniformly upwards, and during that period the complaints were few; but in the year 1920, trade became depressed, and towards the end of that year the higher wages began to press severely upon manufacturers and traders. It was found that reductions of the wage scales fixed by Trade Boards were often resisted by the workers, and even when assented to could not be legalised without a delay of some months. Thereupon dissatisfaction ensued, complaints of evasion of the Acts became frequent, and urgent appeals were made for the modification of the Acts. It was under these conditions that we were requested to enquire into the working and effect of the Trade Board legislation.

The Enquiry.

13. The evidence given before us has been submitted by(1) Witnesses representing Associations of Employers of a general character, such as the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, the London Chamber of Commerce, and the National Union of Manufacturers. (2) Witnesses representing Associations of Employers connected with particular trades, such as the Drapers' Chamber of Trade, the Wholesale Clothing Manufacturers' Federation, the Food Manufacturers' Federation, the Scottish Retail Garment Makers' and Millinery Trades' Federation, and the Birmingham and Wolverhampton District Association of the Engineering and National Employers' Federations. (3) Witnesses representing general Organisations of Workers, such as the National Federation of General Workers and the Trade Boards Advisory Council of the Trades. Union Congress.

(4) Witnesses representing Trade Unions connected with particular trades such as the Amalgamated Tailors' Garment Workers' Union, the Dundee and District Union of Jute and Flax Workers and the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks.

(5) Witnesses representing the Parliamentary Committee of the Co-operative Congress.

(6) Representative members of Trade Boards both on the Employers' and Workers' Sides.

(7) Chairmen and other appointed members of Trade Boards. (8) Officials or former officials of the Ministry of Labour, including Inspectors appointed under the Trade Boards Acts.

(9) A former official of the Board of Trade.

Statements have also been received from individual employers and workers.

The general tendency of the evidence given by witnesses falling within the first six of the above categories may be summarised by saying (a) that nearly all of them desired the retention of the provisions of the Act of 1909, directed to the prevention of "sweating"; (b) that of the witnesses representing employers, while a strong minority were willing that the Act of 1918 should continue in force subject to amendments in its machinery, the majority desired the repeal or drastic amendment of that Act; (c) that the witnesses representing workers and the Co-operative Congress were in favour of retaining both Acts, but (d) all the witnesses criticised the machinery of the Acts and wished to have it amended. The witnesses in the remaining categories gave valuable information as to the working of the Acts and expressed varying opinions as to their principle.

We propose first, to deal with the wide questions raised as to the formation and functions of the Trade Boards, and afterwards to consider what amendments should be made in the machinery of the Acts.

Criticisms on the working of the Acts.

14. The principal charges made against the Trade Board system by the representatives of employers are (A) that the high level of the minimum rates fixed by the Boards, together with the absence (in some instances) of any provision for differentiation to meet special local conditions, have caused loss and dislocation of trade, closing down of workshops and reduction of staffs, and so have contributed to the prevailing unemployment; (B) that the rates fixed have increased the competition of home traders not employing labour and have given favourable openings to the foreign producer; (C) that in some trades the rates fixed for juvenile labour have interfered with the recruitment and training of young workers and have jeopardised the future of the trade; (D) that the lines of demarcation laid down in applying the Acts to trades, the multiplicity of Boards set up for kindred industries, and the lack of co-ordination among these Boards have produced unfair competition and have created friction and confusion in traders' establishments; and (E) that the length of time required for revision of the rates when fixed has rendered it impossible to modify wage-rates so as to follow the trend of prices and cost of living, and so has caused hardship and loss. For the detailed statements in support of these charges we must refer to the full record of the evidence, and it is impossible in this Report to give more than a general description of the statements made.

15. (A.) As regards loss of trade and unemployment, apart from general charges made against the system as a whole, the heaviest weight of criticism fell upon the 5 Boards covering the retail clothing trades, and in particular upon the Dressmaking and Hat, Cap and Millinery Trade Boards (E. & W.) and the Retail Bespoke Tailoring Trade Board (G.B.). It was stated by witnesses representing the Drapers' Chamber of Trade and other associations and by individual employers that the level of the rates fixed by the Dressmaking and Hat, Cap and Millinery Boards (E. & W.) for workers in the retail sections of their trades had forced employers to raise prices beyond the capacity of their customers to pay, and had diverted custom from the retail to the wholesale sections of these trades; and that this had led to the closing down of retail workrooms and to the discharge of workers who went to swell the volume of local unemployment. In support of these charges, instances of reductions of staff and loss of trade attributed to the operation of the rates fixed in both urban and rural areas were quoted from such widely scattered points as Brighton, Bournemouth, the Isle of Wight, Bridport, Cornwall, Chester, Derby, Newcastle, Grimsby and Lowestoft. In these trades, while the high level of the wage-rates was generally held

to be responsible for the hardships caused, the absence of provision for differentiation in rates to meet the special local needs of certain areas was considered by some witnesses to be an additional cause of dislocation. It was, however, against the Retail Bespoke Tailoring Trade Board (G.B.) that criticism on this ground was directed with special force. Instances of reductions of staff and loss of trade ascribed to the failure on the part of this Board to differentiate between rural areas and large towns were submitted from Cornwall, Devon, Lincolnshire, and from many parts of Scotland, including the Orkney Islands, Stranraer, Banff and Elgin. It was also suggested that similar absence of provision for local differentiation in the rates fixed by the Scottish Dressmaking and Millinery Boards had been a contributory cause of unemployment in rural areas in Scotland.

16. Among Trade Boards for trades akin, through similarity of competitive conditions, to the retail clothing trades, the Boot and Shoe Repairing and the Laundry Trade Boards were subjected to criticism, mainly on the ground of failure to adjust their rates to meet special local conditions. The flat rates fixed by the former Board were said to be causing great hardship to employers of labour in such areas as Cornwall, the North of Scotland and the Shetland Islands. A representative of employers in the Laundry Trade stated that there had been a substantial reduction in the number of persons employed in the trade since the Laundry Trade Board had begun to legislate.

17. In the manufacturing trades the heaviest charges in respect of unemployment and loss of trade were made against the group of Boards for the Textile Trades, Rope, Twine and Net, Flax and Hemp, and Jute. A representative of the employers' side of the Rope, Twine and Net Trade Board (G.B.) expressed the view that the operation of the Trade Board system had brought about the complete dislocation and crippling of the industry,' a result which he attributed partly to the general level of the rates fixed and partly to the failure on the part of the Board to make adequate provision for the peculiar circumstances in which the trade was carried on in rural areas, especially in the counties of Dorset and Somerset. Evidence as to unemployment said to be due to the operation of the Board's rates in Lowestoft was also submitted.

Representatives of employers' associations in the Flax and Hemp and Jute Trades expressed the opinion that the rates fixed by their Boards had contributed to the general trade depression. They stated that orders had to be refused, and suggested that freedom to adjust rates of wages quickly in accordance with rapidly fluctuating conditions would have tended substantially to diminish the volume of unemployment in their trades.

18. Among other Boards for the manufacturing trades, criticism of a general nature was directed against the Scottish Aerated Waters Trade Board, which was stated to have fixed as minima the highest rates previously paid in the trade without any adequate

consideration of the problems involved. The operation of these rates was said to have caused great hardship to employers and to have led generally to the dismissal of the less efficient workers. Some individual employers in the Brush and Broom Trade, chiefly in the Midlands and West of England, alleged that the rates fixed by the Brush and Broom Trade Board had caused serious dislocation of trade and had led to dismissals. An employers' association in the Paper Box Trade suggested that an increase in rates in November, 1920, had aggravated the depression which at that date was making itself felt in the trade.

19. (B.) As regards the aggravation of unfair competition. in the home market by traders not employing labour, it was stated that in the Retail Tailoring, Retail Dressmaking, Boot and Shoe Repairing and Laundry Trades, the level of the rates fixed by the Trade Boards was tending to divert work from employers of labour into the hands of persons carrying on business on their own account, to whose numbers were being added recruits from the ranks of unemployed workers. The competition of such persons was stated to make itself specially felt in the Retail Tailoring Trade in rural districts in Scotland, and in the Boot and Shoe Repairing Trade in districts such as Cornwall and the Shetland Isles. Representatives of employers in the Boot and Shoe Repairing and Laundry Trades stated that a substantial proportion of the work of their trades was in the hands of persons employing no labour.

20. The charge that Trade Board rates were favouring the foreign competitor was urged most strongly by a representative of employers in the Rope, Twine and Net Trade, who stated that, by the operation of the Trade Board, the capacity of the industry to compete in foreign markets was being weakened and the foreign competitor was being given an opportunity of gaining a foothold in the home market. He stated that not only were foreign orders being lost to France and Belgium, but that nets from Holland and Denmark, countries whose currency was not depreciated, were competing in the home market for the first time in the history of the trade. Employers' representatives in the Flax and Hemp, the Jute and the Pin, Hook and Eye Trades made general charges of a similar character. A representative of the employers' side of the Lace Finishing Trade Board laid stress on the difficulties with which British manufacturers of lace, bound to pay statutory minimum rates, were faced in their competition with French manufacturers, favoured by a depreciated exchange and practically free from the restrictions of minimum wage legislation.

21. (C.) As regards the effects of the operation of the rates fixed for juveniles, the greatest volume of criticism was levelled, as in the case of the charges of general trade dislocation and unemployment, against the Boards covering the Retail Clothing Trades.

The Drapers' Chamber of Trade and a number of other employers' associations and individual employers stated that the level of the rates fixed for female learners in the retail sections of