The first Annual Report of the London Building Guild was
published last week and expressed the hope that this experiment in Guild Socialism " may be the beginning of a really scientific, orderly, industrial revolution." The Guild points out that it has raised the standard rate of pay by 111- per eent. while reducing the cost of building by at least 5 per cent. below its own estimates. The estimates of the Guild were already lower than those of rival tenders. The rise of 11j per cent. on the standard rate was due to the cost of continuous pay during sickness, during bad weather when work was impossible, and during holidays. The claims of the Guild are certainly very interesting. If Guild building can succeed on a large scale so much the better. Meanwhile, all we have to say by way of criticism is that it is a mistake to base large hopes on extremely limited data. No doubt the Guild builders felt that they were on their mettle and they put their " backs Into it." If Trade Unions in the building trade generally would induce men to put their backs into it almost anything might be accomplished, for in few trades are the regulations so cramping and so self-defeating.
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