A GREAT INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITY

WE have written in the preceding article about the intolerably despotic character of a general strike, but there remains something to be said on the other side. We recognize that the vast majority of the strikers have never thought out the facts which we have there discussed, and that they honestly believed (because they had been told) that by striking they would help the miners and that the miners' improved standard of life would react agree- ably upon the standards of all other industries. Men who have acted loyally to their friends, even though they have been misled, and though the whole thing is an illusion, must never be thrown into a bitter or sullen mood. If bitterness remains the great new possibilities of industrial revival will slide away into the mists of the future. The Prime Minister, as he told us in his moving broadcast address, is " a Man of Peace," and we may therefore feel sure that he will do everything within his power to heal the wounds.

There is a glorious opportunity awaiting British industry if we can snatch and save good fellowship out of the recent catastrophe. The motive of the strikers was not only sympathy with the miners. There was a general feeling that there was " something wrong " with industry • as a whole. And so there is. When the patient is in bed, convalescent, then is the time for the doctors to impress upon him a new way of life. It is not only the mines that need reconstructing. Employers should eagerly accept the policy of high wages on condition that I Science should be welcomed in at the front door by both sides and that labour-aiding machinery should be received as a gift of the gods.

A friend of the Spectator who has made a lifelong study of industrial problems, has sent us a memorandum on the subject, and it seems to us so well to deserve con- sideration that we reproduce a part of it. It is at least a sign of the serious thought able men are giving to our new Industrial Revolution. Labour must be brought more into counsel. The fatal dividing line between the wage-earners and the management (which does not exist in America) must disappear.

A very small minority of trade union leaders, and an even smaller proportion of the rank and file may have entered the strike with the definite idea of using it as an occasion for an attack upon the democratic form of government. It would be absurd to suggest that this was the real underlying cause why three or four million British workmen held up the life of the nation. The fundamental causes of the strike were two :— (a) A desire to demonstrate the solidarity of labour ; (b) A desire to demonstrate the necessity of maintaining a decent standard of living.

The ideal of maintaining for the whole of the people a decent standard of living is more deeply held in Great Britain and in the two predominantly British Dominions—Australia and New Zealand—than in any other part of the world. So strongly is this ideal held that these three countries have shown that they are prepared to sacrifice for this cause at least in a certain degree what the classical economist would describe as national economic efficiency.

It would seem that the recent crisis could well be used with most impressive effect by the Government and by the party at present in power, if a declaration were made to the effect that they intend to do everything that is possible to ensure to the people of this country a progressively improving standard of living. In order to give any such declaration real weight it would be necessary for the Government to go much further than a mere declaration. It would have to state what action would, in its opinion, be necessary if the nation was to be in a position to improve the standard of living or its workers.

It is suggested that there are three essentials :— (a) Industrial peace and industrial goodwill.

The Prime Minister has devoted so much time and enthusiasm to these two points that it is unnecessary to elaborate them here.

(b) Reconstruction.

Although the Government can fairly claim that the Electricity Bill represents the largest move in the direction of reconstruction undertaken since the war, this is only a small beginning. The Government might state that it was prepared to call upon the best brains of the nation to advise as to what measures of reconstruction were necessary in the chief industries in order to ensure efficiency. It could be indicated that although owing to the crisis in the mining industry, the reconstruction of the coal industry would take precedence, yet there are many other industries that need immediate and full consideration. There is the cotton industry, which has been working short-time for a long period.

There is the iron and steel industry in which overseas markets are being lost to our competitors. There is the heavy engineering industry. Even in the prosperous industries, such as the motor-car trade, there is enormous scope for improve- ment in exports, provided a satisfactory reconstruction is undertaken.

The Government might therefore declare its intention of setting upspecial committees for each trade inwhich immediate efforts towards reconstruction are considered necessary. On these committees both the employer and the employed would serve. In order to give the nation the most definite assurance that the reconstruction ideas would be carried into effect, the Government might give pledges to introduce legislation wherever necessary for carrying into effect recommendations.

(c) Markets.

Given peace and goodwill in industry and a definite recon- struction policy, there is a third essential, if the standard of living is to be maintained and improved. This essential is markets for fully manufactured goods. Britain attained great prosperity through becoming the world's workshop and if she is to maintain in comfort her large population, she must re-establish her historic industrial tradition. In other words she must recapture the position of being the leading nation in the world for the production of highly manufactured goods.

It has become obvious that Great Britain cannot rely upon the export of coal and of semi-manufactured goods in the same way as in the past. Sheltered markets for manufactured goods will thus obviously be of the greatest advantage in the re-establishment of Great Britain's position. The Govern- ment might give pledges, as unequivocal as those suggested in the case of reconstruction of industry, of its intention to inaugurate a definite, sustained and determined policy of Empire development. In other words it should aim at developing the purchasing power and utilising the standard of living of the British Dominions overseas. It should also adopt on a more general scale in the Crown Colonies the policy which has been so successful in West Africa and which has proved so beneficial both to the native farmer and to British export trade.

It is probably inevitable that the financial strain and the wastage of the general strike will endanger the standard of living of the worker. The Government cannot use purely artificial methods, such as subsidies, to maintain these standards.

In a declaration of policy, such as has been suggested above, it could make clear to the whole nation that the Govern- ment intends to utilise the brains and energy of the nation to place national industries on a secure footing. It is frankly recognised that industrial goodwill is essential if standards of living are to be maintained and improved. It is, however, felt that the Government in pleading for industrial goodwill would enormously strengthen its case if the outline of a definitely constructive policy were presented to the nation.