SCHEMES OF RECONSTRUCTION.
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In Their Relation to the Motor Industry.
0 F ALL THE SCHEMES put forward with a view to meeting the difficulties of the reconstruction period, the one that has received most attention is, naturally, that embodied in the report of the 'Whitley -Committee on the subject of Joint Standing Industrial Councils. Other proposals have been made more or less on the same lines, but going a good deal further, and apparently involving the enfranchisement of industry as such. The difficulties in the way of this last proposal are such as to indicate also some of the difficulties in the way of forming -what may be called Whitley councils in the industries regarded
severally. • . .
A council representative both of employers and employees might Conceivably' be forthed to cover a specific industry, "or, alternatively, to cover all the industries in a specific-district. It is hard to believe that the latter class of council represents a practicable proposal, since it would involve, throwing overboard the greater part, if not the whole, of the work that has been done during recent years in. the direction of organizing industries mainly with. a view to the framing of sound policies.
As regards the formation of industrial councils, one can imagine, for example, a council of the engineering industry formed, perhaps, of representatives of tile Engineering Employers' Federation and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. The big difficulties appear to be encountered when we endeavour to envisage councils which should be capable of acting, so to speak, as the parliaments of individual industries more restricted in scope and often closely allied with and overlapping one another. ' For example, if we were to try 'to form a Whitley council to act as the general governing body of the motor industry, we should be up against immense difficulties from the very start.
,Some of the Dangers.
The formation of the employers' side of the council should not be particularly hard. Presumably, the Association of British Motor Manufacturerswould be competent to deal with this matter. It is already almost completely representative, and, so far as I am aware, there is no fundamental reason why the few remaining gaps should not be filled.
When we come to the workers' side of the council, the position is absolutely different. It is impossible to draw anything like a hard-and-fast line between the workers in the motor industry and those engaged on similar classes of work in other branches of engineering. Many, of the men move from one industry to another. Their membership of a Trade Union depends on the nature of their trade and not on the ultimate product of the firm for which they work. It is thus very difficult to see how workmen's representatives could be chosen whose interests would be simply and solely those of the industry they were required to represent. If they were merely selected by some big Union or group of Unions, because, for the time being, they happened to be employed in the motor industry, it is most unlikely that they would be sufficiently assured of their own competence to represent all the workers in the industry in question without rather frequent reference to the body which appointed them. If their acceptance of any proposition laid before the couneil of the motor industry were to be dependent, as seems likely, on the approval of some body of workers in the engineering industry as a whole, then the result would not be the proposed selfgoverning of the .motor industry.
The motor council would be practicallY powerless. It would not be enough that its policy should not be antagonistic to that of other branches of the engineering industry, but what would inevitably happen would be that its utility would be constantly limited by the fact that its proposals had to be submitted for endorsement at an early stage to some body not, as a whole, familiar with its special conditions and circumstances.
Thus, however desirable such a consummation may be as an ultiMate aim, it does not appear that the motor industry can advantageously act upon the Whitley Report at present. Still less would it be able to turn to practical account the even more-extensive proposals already referred to ; in other words, we cannot elect a representative parliament of industry so long as we only have a very vague idea as to who ought to be qualified to act as electors.
Utilizing Existing Organizations.
In the tneanw.hile, it does not appear that there will be any danger in utilizing a manufacturers' association, provided that it be representative, to advise the Government with regard to the reconstruction problems as they affect a specific industry. There are few, if any, employers who do not very fully recognize the strength of the claims if labour, or would put forward any policy which would antagonize labour interests. We may therefore depend on a general recognition of the fact that the interests of labour and capital are fundamentally the same. Either one must fail without,the co-operation of the other. No sanebody of manufacturers would put together a programme which did not recognize that, in return for unrestricted output, the manual worker must receive good wages and must work under good conditions, and only for a reasonable number of hours. What the manufacturer wants to do is to provide for industrial developments, Which, will enable him to satisfy the reasonable claims of labour, and yet obtain a proper return for his own investment of capital and for the use of his directing abilities.
The Whitley Report includes many subjects which, it is suggested, might be referred to the proposed councils ; not only matters directly affecting the worker, but matters only indirectly affecting him be-' cause they will affect the prosperity of his industry. In such a category comes the question of industrial research and the full utilizing of its results, and also the question of proposed legislation affecting the industry. It is inconceivable that the policy of motor manufacturers and of the men employed by them should really differ materially on' such points. The sole object of research is the development of the product with a view to the improvement of its position • in competitive markets. The object of an legislation which may be proposed cannot, be. other than the consolidation and enlargement of those markets.
The Returned Army Lorries.
One gathers that the Government's policy with regard to questions of reconstruction will certainly involve free ,co-operation, so far as it may be possible, with the interests particularly concerned. For instance, we have the question. of the disposal of the motor vehicles that will no longer be needed in Government service. The people most affected by the nature of the decision reached on this point are the motor manufacturers and the Government : the latter
because it must see that the stuff fetches a reasonable price ; the former because anything like an indiscriminate sale of thousands of lorries Would upset the market for years to come and would injure the reputation of the British. industry as a whole, and of the manufacthrers who supplied the vehicles in particular. Indirectly, the potential user is also concerned. He would, naturally, like to get. an exceptionally .good bargain,: but there is no sound reason why the individual should benefit At the expense of the community. These vehicles are now the property of the community; and the problem will not have been properly solved unless it is ultimately found that they fetched their fair market value. • This particular problem has been causing grave anxiety to manufacturers for a long time past, and it is only recently that any machinery has been 'set up which is really competent to deal; with it.
Priority of Supply Problem.
Many other problems will arise rather later on ; some of them not,until the war is actually over. At the moment. when manufacturers are no longez required to produce for the Government, there will be a. shortage in many of theimaterials which they need to enable them to go back to-their normal work, utilizing in so doing the progress inerespect of materials that has been made since the outbreak of war.
• After-war Supplies of Material.
The question of priority in the supply of materials will be a very difficult one. Every industry will have its own claims to make, but the elector industry, apparently, has the right to be classified witlushipping and railways, since it is an essential factor in the general provision of transport. The Government will, presumably employ the available tonnage, which can in no case be really adequate, on the one hand for the export of manufactured goods,' and on the other for the import of .food and of the raw, materials of industry. Probably the importer of manufactured products will have a trying time, during which it will be impossible to give!,him,much consideration. This state of affairs will help to give our motor industry an opportunity to get upon its feet, even though the process will be retarded by a shortage in some of the necessary materials. So far as one can see, the best' that can be done to meet this difficulty is the adoption of a thoroughly well-inforbied Isystem of ,rationing. Here the Government has the choice of alternative methods. It may either ration the supplies itself in detail, or else it may after proper examination of the whole case, allocate a certain bulk quantity of each material to each industry, leaving the industry in every ease to evolve itseownimethodeof rationing to its own best advantage regarded as a whole. All the symptoms are , to the effect that the Government desires to loosen its somewhat paralysing grip upon t industries at the earliest possible inoment, and not to hang on to any responsibilities that it can reasonably place on other shoulders.
The whole opinion of the business world haa been so clearly expressed as adverse to continued Government controlwhere it ean-hetavoided, that it is mostlimprobable that such. control will be unnecessarily extended. In fact, everything favours the assumption that each industry will be,i encouraged to organize itself thoroughly and to conduct its own internal affair e through the medium of some representative body which shall act as a link between the incluetry and the Government whenever legiSIation affecting that industry is in prospect.
Capital and Labour Co-operation.
It-is on account of this, desire to lay more and more responsibility upon the industries themselves that such strong efforts are being made to constitute industrial governing bodies in which the worker shall be properly recognized. Somewhere in the structure of organization such bodies must exist and their place must foe very near the top. For example, if the motor manufactorers are entrusted with a great deal of important work in their own common interests, their decisions will still, as regards broad principles and the relations between ea.pital and labour, come up for review before sonic body upon which both thesetireat parties are properly. represented. Whether these big joint tribunals shall be unofficial, semi-official or entirely.official is one of the big questions that' have got to be settled, but it would be a great mistake if the idea of joint councils is forced 'too far atetoo early a stage. The only consequence would be to break up the measure of industrial organizaticen that leas.been, with difficulty, achieved, in many cases only under the influence of war conditions.
TheBritish Workers' League, in its programme of reconstruction, advocates national, control of industries vital to national safety. This does not necessarily mean that such industries should he socialized, but rather that the State: possibly acting upon the advice of Sonic well-constiteited: jdint councils of employers and workers, should exercise a supervisory function, co-ordinating, to some extent, the efforts of various industriese'and regulating the the applying to them in such a way as to secure their extension in the interests both of capital and of labour without allowing an undue share of profits to be taken up by either group. The strong point in the programme of the British Workers' League really lies in. the coupling of this proposed control with an undertaking on the part of the nation to assist essential industries, especially when they come into competition with dumped goods or the products of sweated labour, or are faced with temporary adverse conditions.
The Tariff Question.
There is nothing in the programme of the League which seems to indicate that the mental and manual workers of whom it is composed are opposed to the imposition of tariffs. The point we have reached with regard to ,this question appears to be that we are assured that the majority opinion is now in favour of protective duties. We are, for the moment at least, in ignorance as to whether the swing of the pendulum has taken us far enough to make those duties really effective. A duty of, say, 10 per cent. might be quite adequate for some industries, but would certainly be inadequate for the motor industry, and it will be in the last degree unfortunate if too much stress is laid upon the importance of treating all industries alike. Individual treatment will certainly be necessary, and if, largely as the result of the war, it can be shown that nothing less than a very substantial duty would serve to help the consolidation of the motor industry, then we must not be influenced against the Aposition of such a duty, at any rate, for a period more or lees limited, by the fact that what is required ana given in other quarters is on a, more modest scale.
Real Movement Has Begun.
I do not know how far the-British Workers' League is at present representative of those for Whom is formed. It is certainly, a body which holds enlightened opinions which are in no sense narrow. This is shown by its attitude towards tariffs already mentioned, and also by its desire to stimulate the output of the individual' worker, doing away with artificial restriction. It also very properly calls for reorganisation of the-Civil Service, and for a more liberal system of education, including proper technical training. • .
Altogether, things are beginning to move with regard i to 'reconstruction problems. A few menths,ago we were as unready for peace as in the summer of 1914 we were unready for war. • Even now we have not got. far from the same position, but we have at least -made a start, and it is in overcoming the first inertia that the greatest difficulty is generally experienced., Consequently, we may be justified in hoping that the recOnstruction movement will from now onwards pro
greiis.with ever-increasing speed. Vmus.