THE INDUSTRY AND PARLIAMENT.
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It is Here Argued that Steps Should be Taken to Secure the Election to Parliament of a Man Chhrged to Safeguard the Interests of the• Motor Industry.
T. HEKE ARE MANY who have always felt, and who continue to feel, that one of the reasons' whythe British motor .industry has not received-that considerate treatment from the Government which it has a right to expect is that it does not possess the machinery necessary constantly to bring immediately before the Cabinet and the House . of Commons its point of. view on matters that affect
its interests. . •
Attempts have been made from time . to time to form Parliamentary Committees in tile interests of :the me-tor industry, but it is questionable whether this procedure could ever be effective and, in fact, whether the formation of such committees is net, mainly, a waste of time. In this article we are dealing with the motor industry as distinct from the 'motor movement as a whole. WO must recognize the good work that has been done for the movement in Parliament by such men as Sir William JoynsonHieks and, until he resigned his seat, the Hon. Sir Arthur Stanley. We also wish to make it clear that we are by no means blind to the benefits whieh the industry may derive from-the presence. in Parliament of 'p nen More directly, connected with it ; as, foi example, Mr. Edward Manville, Sir Herbert Austin
and Mr. A. R. Atkey. .
Organized Labour Represented But Not Industry.
Having cleared the ground by these preliminary statements, let us get immediately to what we believe to be the root of the matter. Let us consider the difference between the representation in. Parliament of organized labour and the representation of industry, by which term we mean not solely the capitalist, but the combination dependent upon both employer and employed. If a man of great wealth, with big industrial interests, or one who is ' the chairman or a member of the board of directors of large companies, enters the. House of Commons, he is regarded by the Labour Party as a representative, perhaps unofficial but none the less direct, of the ,tapitalist a. As such, he is looked upon at least as a potential enemy and the representatives of labour are by no means disposed to collaborate readily with him. Thus, he is handicapped_from the -start as a representative of industry.
.Industry is something from whichboth the employer and the manual worker obtain' their means of livelihood.. What is good for industry must, almost necessarily, be good both for the employer and for the employed, though, in some respects, theinterests of employer' and employed are divergent. Given a certain profit in working, the more that goes to the one, the less remains for the other. There already 6xista in Parliament a Party, the primary purpose Of which is to take up and fight what it believes to be the ease of the employed, wherever the interests of employed and employer clash. There exists also a less clearly defined or completely organized party which is really, primarily, concerned. with protecting the interests of the employer asopposed to those of the employed.
.The first of these two parties consists of professional politicians. The second consists mainly, if not wholly, of-•amateur politicians. . The labour man in Parliament is paid to represent his union there. He is selected for the job because he is not only a eap e8
able speaker, but possesses personality that has already made him noticeable among his fellows, and a .very complete, knowledge of the ease that it is his /business to represent. The fact that he does not actually. receive the bulk of his salary in his capacity as a Member Of .Parliament makes no difference to the real position. Suppose that, when in Parliament, he kicks over the traces and takes a line of his own that is not approved by his union. His union cannot immediately turn him out of Parliament and he can go an receiving tlee .paltry income which is paid to a Member of-Parliament as such. The union can; however, remove him from the position of secretary, or whatever office he May hold, and thus immediately cut -off the greater part Of his income. This can happen not. only if he ceases to support a policy that he. is sent into Parliament to support, but also if, when there, he fails to show sufficient energy, sufficient industry, or sufficient grip cif his. subject. He must study that subject continuously, perhaps not for the sole reason that his livelihood depends upon doing so, but at any rate in part for this reason. He must know his business, or his business will cease to know him, and his business is to be an effective advocate in Parliament of the interests which are responsible for providing his Means of livelihood.
• The Amateur Politician Cannot Undertake The Duty.
Now, the representatives of employers in ParliaMent are at present on quite a different footing. They are,as a rule, made men froni the fuaansial. standpoint. They are accustomed to giving rather than to receiving orderes and carrying them out. They are, perhaps, inclined to resent anythint in the nature of a subservient position. They have been clecte.d to Parliament by a. large body of general electors and they feel in honour bound primarily to remember this fact and not to devote the whole of their_ energies to the advance of the particular . interest-a with which they are particularly connected...
In a fair number. of eases, though they are men of ability, they are not men of ability in a Parliamentary sense. They may be good chairmen without being good committeemen. They may be good le.adera of industry without being good -.speakers. Their power may rest rather in the ability to employ the right men to understand and to carry through each part of a business, than in the ability themselves . to grip the underlying 'things that matter, in every part of that business. They are amateurs in the sense that they have not attained their Parliamentary position by means of a lengthy training specially, suited to the development of the Parliamentarian. They are amateurs also in the sense that they are not -dependent on the competent fulfilment of their .Parliamentary duties for a living. An amateur may, of course, be the equal and more than the equal of the , professional, but, in actual practice, this seldom happens unless the amateur gives the Whole of his time to the -job in which he competes with the professional.
Now, unless a manufacturer has completely retired from active business, he, obviously, must give a considerable amount of his time to the concerns of his own particular firm or firma. Only a part, and this a secondary part, remains for the study of the industry of . which his firm is. only a small fraction.
What is good for one firm is not necessarily good for an industry as a whole. Only an impartial observer can be expected to arrive at the underlying principles indicating what is good for the great majority. Moreover, of many matters that require attention, there are some of first importance to certain firms and of quite secondary importance to others, and vice. versa. The man who is connected with a particular firm will judge. of the relative importance of various netters according as they affect his own firm, and he may, therefore, judge wrongly from the point of view of the industry. NOw, the professional labour politician, on the other hand, is no more concerned with the employees Of Messrs. Jones than with those of Messrs. Smith. He is simply concerned with what he believes to be the welfare of all the men who are doing a certain class of work. He is, therefore, in a position to take abroad and not a parochial point of ,view, and he has no encouragement towards the latter.
It must be already apparent to the reader that the fundamental principle that we have set out to advocate is that an industry can only be properly represented in Parliament if its representation 'includes a man, or men, giving whole time to the study of that industry as a whole. Moreover, every man is more or less out for himself. Therefore, there ie a stronger probability of good work being done by those who cannot afford to do bad work or to neglect the job altogether.
Select and Train the -Right Man and Secure His Election. • Our proposal is, then, that the motor industry should select a man or if they .care to go to the expense a group_of men), and paythat man in order that he may become quickly qualified to represent the industry in Parliament. After his period of train:iug, they inust be prepared also to use their influence to secure his nomination as a candidate for a suitable constituency, where his election is at least highly probable. They must be prepared to Stand the east of that election, and they must be prepared to recognize that, when he is in Parliament, his Parliamentary duties will have the first call upon his time and that a part of the`other duties that he is ostensibly paid to fulfil may have to be delegated to an asSistant
When in Parliament., it will not be his duty merely to organize and lead deputations of his industry when requested to do so, or to put questions handed to him for that purpose by the industry, but he would he expected to show initiative and to guide the industry to doing the right thing in a Parliamentary sense rather than be guided by it. He would supply periodical reports as to the position in respect :of all legislation, existent or contemplated, likely to affect' the industry, and he would advise what, if any, action should be taken. He would be a working member of the House in the sense that he would not only attend and, on occasion, participate in debates, but
he would willingly accept service on anY Parliamentary Committee dealing with the details of any Bill
in any way affecting his industry. He would be expected to make himself sufficiently felt to ensure that he would be invited to serve in such ways and also to make certain that, when concessions have to be granted, they are -balanced by concessions or undertakings from the other side.
Let us take one small example' to illustrate this point The 13111 resulting in the constitution of the Ministry of Transport took a long time to go through the House.While it was in Committee, many concessions were necessarily made by its opponents and some, at least, were made by the Government. The prospective Minister of Transport • gave various undertakings calculated to reduce the opposition of
certain .interests. Finally, it was provided that various Committees should he formed in the Ministry to advise the Minister. So far as we are aware, the British motor industry is not directly and distinctly represented on any single committee of the Ministry. If gentlemen connected with Motor manufacture are on such committees, they are not there as specifically_representing British manufacturers. Had the industry possessed its professional Member of Parliament, there would have been every reason to call upon him to know why it was that he had failed to secure some more satisfactory representation, which could probably have been negotiated in the form of an undertaking, given in advance, in return for the withdrawal of opposition toecertain points in the Bill. As things are vie can blame nobody. If we had had a representative in Parliament we could have blamed Aim; and in such a ease he would know that, unless he could give some very satisfactory explanation of his failure, the Continued tenure of his professional position would immediately become doubtful.
Other Industries also Making a Strong Employers' Group.
Our scheme is not applicable only to the motor industry. There are many other organised industries which could, we believe, adopt it with equal advantage. In that ease, we should presently have, in the Huse of Commons, a solid group of members representing industries. On nine occasions out of ten, the vote of this group would be unanimous and the group would, therefore, possess considerable 'power. It might, in fact; develop into an Industry Party,not antagonistic but complementary to the 'Labour 'Party. The latter would, at least, have respect for . the members of the Industry Party realizing that, like themselves, these were men who held their position by reason of their competence in Parliamentary matters.
Any industry adopting the scheme should be absolutely ensured against having a strong ease spoilt. by its faulty or ill-timedipresentation. The professional member would, naturally, lead deputations and state their cases for them, not merely 'with the assistance of information compiled by someone else, but with the much sounder backing of information compiled by himself from all possible sources and put into proper -shape with the full knowledge of the value of the respective 'points, having regard to the ,position and difficulties of the Minister approached.
We commend the scheme for the serious consideration of manufacturers during the coming weeks when, if they see fit, they will have many opportunities of discussing it amongst themselves and, in conclusion, we would ask the industry to consider it on its merits • and as an impartial and disinterested proposal 'which, we can undertake, does not owe its inception in the very slightest degree to any personal ambitions of .those who have originally conceived it, or endeavoured to put it into shape. We have in mind no specific individual to occupy the position which we have outlined and we are, in fact, very doubtful whether we yet know the man for the job. It might, quite possibly, he necessary to look for him outside the present boundaries of our circle. The combination of qualities required is not a common one. There are, however, men who possess this combination and the importance of the work, from the point of view both of the industry and of the Ethpire of which it forms a not unimportant part, should be sufficient to attract the right man from among those properly qualified and also possessed of poritical convictions consistent with the general nature of the programme which would require to be carried. through.