people from the soil forms the basis of the capitalist mode of production," and further on he sees quite clearly that “where land is very cheap and all men are free, where every one who pleases can easily obtain a piece of land for himself, not only is labour very dear, but the difficulty is to obtain combined labour at any price." Marxian notions of reform, so seldom understood, even by his disciples, have directly and indirectly been the cause of many of the troubles, the antagonisms, the preposterous misunderstandings affecting the economic question called labour and capital. It is an economic question and must be so recognized. So long as the capitalist imagines that labour is his enemy and so long as labour imagines that the capitalist is his enemy, there will be no peace. So long as capitalists, ignorant of the definition and function of capital, oppose labour delegates who are ignorant of the functions of the factors in production, nothing but confusion and friction may be expected. We must then at once get back to economic principles and, as Mr. Schwab says, teach the American labouring man, but at the same time not forget the American employer. He needs instruction and must not be overlooked. CHAPTER V GREAT BRITAIN AND LABOUR "We are upon the eve of a great reconstruction. It calls for creative statesmanship as no age has done since that great age in which we set up the government under which we live, that government which was the admiration of the world until it suffered wrongs to grow up under it which have made many of our own compatriots question the freedom of our institutions and preach revolution against them.- WOODROW WILSON, The New Freedom, Chap. I, p. 30. IN the direction of instructing employed and employer many interesting things are taking place in England, and I would urge Chambers of Commerce in America to take notice. A most extraordinary book has come to me from Huddersfield. It contains two dozen lectures delivered by some of the most prominent British politicians and business men before a Conference made up of men and women from the West Riding of Yorkshire, as shrewd a business community as there is to be found. Mr. Asquith launches the book with these words in the preface, "I am glad to have the opportunity, afforded by the publication of this volume, of testifying to the value of the conferences which have been instituted for the purpose of examining, in the light of Democratic Principles, the many and complex social problems which will present themselves to our fellow-countrymen for solution when conditions of peace are once more restored to us. . . . I am confident that when the time arrives they (the conferences) will be found to have contributed materially to the formation of a sane and instructed public opinion in relation to the Work of Reconstruction after the War." 1 A labourman dealt with the questions of the rights and responsibilities of labour in industry, and a capitalist with the rights and responsibilities of capital in industry. Mr. Vivian, for labour, stated the question broadly in the following: What are the more important aspects of the industrial problem from the workers' point of view? There is the question of the status of labour in industry, the remunera1 A list of some of the names of the personages who spoke before the conference will give a fair idea of the way the British people are tackling the question of reconstruction: The Rt. Hon. Dr. Addison, M.P., Minister of Reconstruction. Sir Hugh Bell, Bart. The Rt. Hon. J. H. Whitley, M.P., Chairman of the Whitley Commission. Colonel Godfrey Collins, M.P., C.M.G. The Rt. Hon. Herbert Samuel, M.P. The Rt. Hon. Sir Alfred Mond, Bart., M.P., First Commissioner of Works. The Rt. Hon. Lord Leverhulme. Principal L. P. Jacks, D.D. The Rt. Hon. Sir W. H. Dickinson, M.P. The Rt. Hon. H. A. L. Fisher, M.P., President of the Board of Education. Mr. Arthur Sherwell, M.P. Mr. J. M. Hogge, M.P. Mr. John Dillon, M.P. Mr. H. G. Chancellor, M.P. The Rt. Hon. J. M. Robertson, M.P. Mrs. Henry Fawcett. A representative group, containing members of the War Cabinet and pre-War Cabinet, captains of industry, lawyers and economists, discussed the great question of reconstruction. Labour was represented by Mr. Henry Vivian, and Mr. George Nicholls, both exMembers of Parliament. tion of labour in terms of money or share of product, and the conditions affecting labour under which trade and industry is carried on. I was glad to note in the Whitley Commitee's Report a recommendation that labour should be treated more as a partner than as a servant in industry. Our task is to translate this recommendation into practice, having regard to the endless variety of conditions in our industrial life. I am aware that the recommendation does not necessarily imply a full acceptance of what is called co-partnership in its more technical sense. It rather suggests that in the discussion of the issues which arise between employer and employed the spirit of partnership should prevail rather than the spirit of superior and inferior. To some this may not be important. I think it is. In human affairs the spirit, the attitude of mind is often a determining factor in coming to an equitable conclusion over a dispute on material things. That the status of labour should be that of partner, and not of inferior, is a right that Labour must have conceded to it if we are to make headway. On the other hand, as Mazzini taught, there is no right without its corresponding duty, and so if labour is to be received in the industrial council room in the spirit of partnership and in the councils of the State it must take its share of the responsibility for the decisions, having regard to the nation's obligations and the public welfare." The position of the capitalist was stated by Sir Hugh Bell as follows: "By way of illustration of what happens when we entrust to the State duties of the kind of which we spoke a few moments ago the following examples may serve. Shortly before the war broke out the coal trade of the kingdom was put under statutory obligation to pay a minimum wage, a measure of which the best thing to be said is that it has proved thoroughly unsatisfactory to both parties. It has not given the men what they expected, and I for one foresaw this. It has greatly increased the difficulty which the coalowners experience in managing their business, and has added unduly to the cost of getting coal. I won't trouble you with more than a passing reference to the great railway strike, which ended by the railway companies being called upon to pay more wages and then with great difficulty obtaining permission to charge more dues; nor will I dwell on the far-reaching effect of those transactions. I have mentioned these cases because they serve to illustrate the difficulty in which the capitalist is put to discharge the responsibility under which he lies to make his capital fully efficient. He has yet another. The men he employs have not yet learned that their true interest lies in a maximum of production. Partly because they are misled by politicians and others, partly because such teachings jump with their own inclinations, they think that by producing less they will earn more. Their employers are not free from the same reproach. It must often occur to the impartial onlooker that the employer who is condemning his men for idleness and lost time would do well to take the beam out his own eye before he dealt with the mote in his brother's. Be this as it may, one of the capitalist's greatest difficulties is to persuade the men in his employment that regular and earnest work is the only source from which additional remuneration can come. Let me not be misunderstood. I want no wage slavery. I am not wedded to an eight hours day. I desire the man to have reasonable leisure to enjoy the fruits of his labour. But I want him in return for his wage to do an honest and strenuous week's work, and to bear in mind that the only source from which his wage can come is the sale of the commodity he produces. Perhaps the greatest responsibility under which the capitalist lies is to convince labour of the truth of all this. I could - you all could - give instance after instance where the workman's failure to appreciate this has been the cause of immense loss to the employer, to the men, to the country. The ill is easy to state, the remedy more hard to find than any one not familiar with the complexities of industry could think possible. Of one thing I am sure, it does not lie in the intervention of the State, still less in help from the public purse. We who are engaged in industry, capitalists and labourers alike, must find the remedy ourselves. To do so we must bring to the study willing and open minds. Each must try to see the other side of the shield and to appreciate the difficulties of his co-workers as he expects them to appreciate his. If this is brought about, the solu |