Mr. G. H. Roberts, the Minister of Labour, made an
admirable speech at Dartford on Sunday last on "Humanizing Industry." On the one hand, he urged that an employer should pay every employed person "such a wage as would enable him and those de- pendent on him to live a decent life." On the other hand, he warned workmen that they could not have higher wages and social reforms unless they increased their output. The "ca' canny" policy is as ruinous to the workman as it is to the employer and the community. Mr. Roberts said that the impersonal nature of the relationship between employer and employed was the greatest blot on modern industry. It is difficult, in view of the increase not merely of limited companies but also of great combinations among companies, to restore anything like the old personal connexion between employer and workman, but the institution of joint Works Committees will help to promote the friendly relations between the two parties which tend to avert friction.
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