W A PLAN FOR INDUSTRIAL PEACE. which has 'been put forward.
by Mr. Frank Hodges, E desire to draw special attention to an eirenicon the Secretary of the 'Miners' Federation,. in. -the. shape of two articles .contributed, to the Manchester Daily Di h. In the early part of the disastrous eoal:strike 1Qr, bodges behaved in a way which caused 1dm to be spoken of as a firebrand, but towards the end of the strike he displayed a reasonableness and will to conciliate which were very helpful. Evidently. that tendency has grown:in him -since. In. any' case, it was a very agreeable surprise to 'us to read Mr. Hodges's articles. We thoroughly agree with him about ,the madness and the tragedy of the present situation. The nation is :languishing for want of trade and therefore for want of work. In several trades good fortune has brought the ball back to our feet and, it had only to be kicked towards the goal. Yet over and over again the ball has been deliberately kicked in the wrong direction. Do such people as we British seem to be deserve to succeed when we do such. things.? Mr. Hodges has leen turning it all over in. his mind and he now proposes that Capital and Labour should meet together to think, out the whole matter and come to an arrangement which will mean peace for at least ten years. We heartily congratulate Mr. Hodges on his public spirit and good sense and.we sincerely hope that his proposal will be acted upon. Mr. Hodges points outthatraany manual 'workers believe that the employers in the engineering trades want to smash the unions. He thinks this belief is natural, but he does not accept it himself. He believes rather, that there have been faults on both sides. He remarks very truly that the British nation, which livea on its foreign trade, has more to lose than any other nation by recurrent industrial strife. " The curse of the industrial movement is its:inability to get the broad outlook upon this nation's requirements as a whole." The following.sentences contain the substance, of. Mr. Hodges's. proposal "To start with, trade unionism must' be ,recognized as a permanent inatitution. in industry. Employers would do , well if 'they could get as far as to agree that all workmen shouk/ be members of a trade union, and that they are human beings with aspirations, claims, and rights which must be,-conoeded up to .the maximum possibilities of theandustry. Trade unions, in their turn, , would become. institutions 'not merely claiming rights, but accepting duties and shouldering responsibilities in the task of production.. . . If it is possible to have a ten years' pact of peace in naval and military matters, who is there to deny its possibilities in the realm .of British industry 1 " That is excellent in principle, for- it- recognizes that both sides have not only rights but duties. Excellent, -too, is Mr. Hodges's recognition of the fact that -the fortunes of the manual workers rise or fall with the-progress or-decline of ..the whole nation.
Now to come to the few- details which Mr. Hodges sug- gests. He proposes that the Conference Should he sum- moned*by the Government, but slimild'be managed 'y the representatives of Capitalandialiour. His programme is that there should be a legally -guaranteed minimum -wage in 'every trade and that wages paid over and above that minimum should depend upon the- efforts or-the- Skill of the worker or upon the danger of the occupation. Clearly he would get rid of ca' canny. Each industry, he says, should establish its own Conciliation Court to settle dis- putes. But he does not insist upon this as essential, remarking that it is merely his own preference. Although he hopes that the Conference would consider what is called " control by the workers, he admits that " all fanciful claims " must be ruled out. It must be recognized by Labour during the truce that " the text-book formulae of control must give way to reality and experience." We could easily criticize several points in Mr. Hodges's programme. We shall not do so, however, lest we should seem to be less appreciative than we are of the. sincerity with which he has written. We-believe that he has made an opportunity and that it ought to be seized. We need make only one reservation. We are, of course, entirely in favour of trade unionism and we should like to see it extending rather than shrinking. But it is essential that if it is extended the new recruits should be 'willing adherents and not forced levies. Strange though it may seem to Mr. .Hodges, a large number of workers detest the unions and do not want to belong to them. We daresay they are quite wrong—but there it is. This is a free country, and Labour ought to be the last force in the country to do any injury to freedom. Every man must be free to dispose of his labour as he pleases. It should be remembered that compulsion was tried in the guilds and broke down. Even if it should seemingly succeed at another. attempt there would be heartburning and dissatisfaction and therefore rottenness behind. It would. recall Gibbon's description of the terrible Roman efficiency, " Thewhole-world became but a safe and' dreary prison house." Of- course, employers by encouraging trade unionism—which they would have a real incentive for doing if members of the unions acknowledged respon- sibilities as well as claimed rights—might convince an increasing number of workmen that it was desirable to join the unions. We hope that that might happen. But there must not be compulsion either direct or indirect, either open or concealed.
Previous page
