THE THIRD PARTY IN INDUSTRY. T RADES Unions are, per se,
excellent things. Indeed, it is not too much to say that if they did not exist they would have to be invented in order to increase the power and dignity of manual labour. They cannot, in the long run, we believe, increase the remuneration of Labour, for that is governed by external conditions outside their field of action. They can, however, insist on proper consideration being paid to the reasonable wishes of Labour, can preserve the dignity of the workers and can prevent tyranny by capitalists or, still more, by their subordinates, over individuals. The real trouble about the Trades Unions is that of late they have had too much power, and like all other repositories of power not properly controlled, limited, and balanced, they have grown autocratic and oppressive. Power too easily acquired and too easily maintained never fails to corrupt those who possess it. However good may be the intentions of the man with power he will, unless he was born a saint, be unable to resist the intoxi- cation of absolute authority. The immense power which the Trades Unions have possessed in the.last twenty years and which, if we are to be plain, we must say that, on the whole, they have often used very badly and with great detriment to their members, is due to the fact that they were the first to learn the lesson that organization gives power in action. In a disorganized industrial world they have been closely organized, and therefore have had the ball at their feet. At length, however, the employers, better servants of the public perhaps, but worse conserva- tors of their own interests, have learnt the lesson, and have set up organizations ,counter to the Trades Unions but enjoying all the privileges which the Trades Unions so arbitrarily and so unwisely, as they will soon find, wrung from Parliament in the Trades Disputes Act. It is a curious fact, but if the lessons of history are sought it will be found that those who insist on privilege and obtain it always perish in the end from privilege. Privilege, indeed, is like the shrine guarded by the priest of Nemi, ".the priest who slew the slayer and shall himself be slain." But, though the organization of the masters has done a good deal to keep the powers of the Trades Unions within bounds, a still stronger force is now being developed to act as a counterweight to the organizations of the manual workers. This force has grown up by itself and not through any action on the part of -the employers. Indeed, many of them view it, though we think unwisely, with anxiety. We allude to the movement among what have been called the " black-coated " workers. Unions have been formed, and are being formed, from the skilled experts of industry— the men who, to use the old phraseology, are artists, i.e., artisans, and who, though they work with their brains as much as with -their hands, are an essential part of the machinery of production. They are not capitalists and they are not employers. At the same time they appear, though it is generally a misleading appearance, to belong to the capitalist side of the factory or business. In reality they are skilled hands, though often so skilled that they may draw salaries even as high as £10,000 a year. At the top of many a factory or " works " sit these specialists, who work with the pencil rather than the pen and whose services are to be likened to those given by some great lawyer. These artists or super-artisans have, of late years, begun to realize how greatly they might be imperilled by disputes between masters and men—disputes in which they could take no hand and from which they could gain no advantage. These disputes might not only deprive them of their living for many months, owing to the closing of works, but might, through the bitterness and folly of either or both sides, end with the ruin of the industry and so in the ruin of themselves. Accordingly, though rather reluctantly at first, they have thought it wise to organize and be prepared, if necessary, to take a hand in a game fraught with so vast an import to themselves. They felt, in fact, that it was time to show both sides that they were necessary men in the industry, and that they did not intend to see it ruined if they could help it. Nor, again, did they desire to see, what was becoming a possibility, the profits of industry being so greatly absorbed by Labaver that there was little left wherewith to reward the-" black-coated " artists. " We must teach people what would happen if we struck against strikes " might well be described as their motto.
What actually happened in Italy two years ago shows in a very special degree the strength of the experts when they are organized. In certain ironworks disputes arose with the masters so intense that the works had to be closed on the ground that a profit had become impossible. Thereupon the workers, apparently without any serious opposition from the masters, determined they would carry on the work by themselves and show that not only was Jack as good as his master, but that the capitalist employer was a wholly unnecessary person. For the first few days the experiment seemed to be going fairly welL Then the employed suddenly found. themselves up against an obstacle which had not occurred to them as likely to cause trouble. They found that they could finish the work in hand—i.e., work already designed and planned. As soon, however, as that was finished, they were at a stand. They could not start new work without the help of the designers, the black-coated men who worked, not at the smelting furnaces, in the forges or in the machine- rooms, but who sat upstairs poring over drawing-boards, blue-paper designs and other such properties. These were the technical engineers—the men who do the actual work after that sentence which sounds so mysterious to the visitors to a workshop has been pronounced : " Well, we had better send upstairs and have a special drawing made for this job or we shall get into trouble. The ordinary stock-fittings won't do. This must be specially designed."
That is the voice which often spoils the slumbers of the householder dependent upon an old-fashioned pump, or engine, or hydraulic ram, nr even a motor-car-of unusual make. All the same, it is one of the essential _conditions of modern production. In the Italian case, when the workers found that they must get new designs, they dis- covered that the designers were not there, or, at any rate, would not work. The designers -most naturally and properly thought of their own interests in this matter. They believed, no doubt rightly, that the workers could not get the capital and had not the brains or the experience to conduct those parts of the industry which may be grouped under the head of management and enterprise. Therefore, they argued, the experiment was going to end in the ruin of the works, and they would be involved in that ruin. Accordingly, they refused to be partners to the attempt and struck against the strikers. They downed drawing-boards and left the building. This brought the strike very quickly to an end. The men had to go to their late employers and confess that they could not get on without the designers and other men of that type, and that apparently these men could not, or would not, work under the new regime. Instances like these, and reflection on these instances, have not merely shown the black-coated men their power, but have shown also that, if they are not to be perpetually worried by other men's disputes, they must give up their old policy of folding their hands and letting those other people fight their battles out. They must be prepared to watch industry and take their own part.
An account of one of these Unions, that of the Technical Engineers, lies before us. It is contained in the Journal of that Society, published by the Editorial Committee, S.T.E. Journal, 102 Belgrave Road, London, S.W. 1. The November number points out that the policy of the Society has now been regularly defined and settled by the branches in general meetings, and that this policy has been communicated to both the lay and the technical Press, with the result that an exceedingly wide and gratify- ing appreciation of their work has been expressed. The Press generally, we are told, has recognized a new note and has shown that it is willing and anxious to investigate the possibilities of the fresh ideas set forth. What that policy is we will try to explain. The first thing to observe in regard to it is that it is not in the least intended to be antagonistic, nor is it in any true sense antagonistic, to existing Trade Unionism. Those who are -responsible for drafting the policy of the S.T.E. do, however, feel, as indeed do many of the present Labour leaders, that " Trade Unionism on the old lines is doomed, and that the normal procedure of a Trade Union now results, in the long run, in little et no benefit to its members." Here is the comment of the Society's organ :— " The constant pursuit of more money for less work s0 vigorously engaged in by practically every other organization of a Trade Union character can lead us nowhere unless ,t be to the Bottomless Pit. The only thing that can save us and those who come after us is the establishment of industry on a basis so sound that the constant fluctuations of supply and demand can be, -if not eliminated, at least damped down to a point where such unemployment as does occur can be reachlY dealt with. It must not bo thought, however, that the SocietY does not intend to concern itself with such questions as an• adequate payment to the Technical Engineer for the work that he performs. On the contrary, it does and will insist that. proper remuneration should be forthcoming for, its members ; but it believes that this desired end can be obtained in other and better ways than those usually adopted, and it is convinced that this end is an inevitable consequence of the carrying out of its policy. Our immediate need is Membership. Our Policy is determined, and we are optimistic enough to believe that it will commend itself to the great majority of the technically trained men in the Engineering Industry. Every effort should be made to induce those men who have reached positions of, eminence in the industry to join us and to lend a. hand to those of their fellows who have been less fortunate. To those who are younger, or are, perhaps, necessarily anxious about material things, we say that, while wo can do little for them yet, their ultimate gain is none the less sure, and we ask their support, also, for a policy which has now received the almost enthmis5t,t0 approval of the engineering and the lay Press of the country. The greater our membership the more quickly can wo give force to our policy and secure the advantages it will give to our members. We have sufficient faith in the good sense of engineers as a whole to feel assured that they will realize that no body which hopes ultimately to secure the support of all those engaged in technical work can achieve its full aims by devoting itself to the pursuit of more money for less work. Now, while Par- liament is anxiously projecting remedies for saving the country from industrial ruin, it is worth while to reiterate that if we can make our Industry a better Industry the benefits will be not only for us but for the nation as a whole ; but a condition of such an effort must be that the technicians in the Engineering and Allied Industries are able to maintain equality with, or superiority to, those of other nations."
We feel sure that our readers will agree that that is a very able announcement and a very important one. It is a direct challenge to that awful attempt to produce the abundance we all desire by the artificial stimulation of what we all dread so deeply—Scarcity. It is a challenge to the hateful policy of " ea' canny," which, alas ! is often adopted, not through Macchiavellianism, but out of a pathetic belief on the part of the worker that the less he produces the more he will help his comrades. Yet all the time he is surely, if not openly, bringing them to misery, ruin and starvation. Was there ever tragedy more poig- nant ! It is a challenge, too, to those besotted sophists who do not realize that you can build nothing upon a foundation of paradox, but who rather seem to think that the more you pile paradox on paradox, fallacy on fallacy, the more swiftly you will arrive at the industrial paradise where everybody may live in a splendid repose upon the idleness of everybody else. The very carefully worded official statement of the policy originally issued last Sep- tember is reproduced in the Journal. We cannot quote, but our readers will find it a memorable declaration.. It is, we believe, not too much to hope that it will some day become the foundation-stone of other Trades Unions similar to that of the Technical Engineers. Meanwhile, the expression " Technical Engineers " is almost wide enough to take in every kind of artist and super-artisan earning salaries from, say, £10,000 to £200 a year !
The Society of Technical Engineers are happy in their staff, in their policy, and, we may add, in their phraseology. One of the phrases in the description of them by those in sympathy with their aims and objects is specially appropriate—" the Third Party in industry." That is what they are, and it is, in our opinion, enormously to the public benefit that this party should assert itself. By public benefit we do not mean to include the capitalist's benefits, though we are not in the least ashamed of expressing a strong desire to see him benefited. We are most anxious that he shall be well treated and that wealth shall be thus attracted to industry. There Is no surer way of increasing wages than by increasing the bidders at the Labour auction. By public benefit, however, we mean something a great deal wider. We mean the interests of the manual labourer. 1Ve mean the interests of the trade as a whole, and not merely as a part. We mean, above all, the interests of the consumer. That unhappy creature is generally entirely left out of account in the great, perpetual, yet wholly unnecessary, scuffle between Labour and Capital. Though every man is a consumer, and though by no means every man is a producer, for some strange reason the voice of the consumer is so still and small a voice that no One hears it. It is completely drowned by the stentorian tones of the producer, whether a manual worker, a brain worker or. the possessor of capital. Indeed, a witty Italian professor of Political Economy is said, at the end of a long life, to have doubted whether the consumer really existed, He had read of him in the old books, of course, but he had never yet come across anyone professing to be a consumer who stood up for his class and threatened vengeance if he was neglected. The producer, ho pointed out, did that all day long and every day. The fact that the consumer never did anything of the sort must surely be taken as proof that he has either ceased to exist or was never anything. more than a phantom of the philosophic brain. Perhaps we shall some day see a close organization of the consumer. A man may some day realize that, if he is a consumer in a hundred things and a producer in only one thing, it may be better worth his while to look after the keeping down of prices in the hundred things than in trying to raise them in one particular instance. We must not, however, pursue this fascinating subject. All we want to do on this occasion is to draw attention to the Society of Technical Engineers and to wish the new body every possible good fortune. It has started with wisdom and forethought, and not in the usual hugger- mugger in which English reforms begin ; and we hope and trust that in the end it will prove worthy of its origin. We will close by- quoting the excellent appeal to technical engineers to join the Society of Technical Engineers. It will be a great pleasure if, through reading the appeal in our pages, some new recruits are got for the Society. We ought to add, however, that it does not seem to be in want of any support of this kind, for the membership is already large and is growing rapidly. The best and most important thing to remember about it is that it is in no way a reactionary, or Capitalist, or anti-Labour organization :- " If you aro on the technical staff of an engineering firm, civil, mechanical, electrical or any other, or if you hold a position on the staff as responsible as a technical engineer's, this Society is for you, and you are asked to bo of it. Its objects are : to look to your individual interests, however you may interpret that term ; to look to the interests of your profession, in an endeavour, amongst many others, to secure for engineers and their colleagues a place in the community more worthy of their immense importance to it ; and to look to tho advance- ment of the engineering industry at home and in the Empire, so far as its members can help it. Its methods will not be of the selfish and, as it thinks, short-sighted order, for it will always consider in all that it does tho interests of the nation and of the industry, and it will not lose sight of the effect of its actions even on individual firms. You cannot do any disservice to your firm, your profession, your industry, your nation, without doing an oven greater disservice to yourself ; you cannot servo them without at least equally serving yourself. The first step in the carrying out of this policy is to make contact both with employers and with manual workers ; the Society wishes to discuss all its objects with the former, while it looks forward to the possible co-operation of the latter in its endeavours to secure the advancement of the engineering industry. Although itself a Trade Union, it does not propose to associate itself with the Labour movement either by Joining the Trade Union Congress or by acting with any Manual Workers' Trade Unions in pursuit of improved conditions of service ; it will take up an intermediate attitude as a third party in industry, detached from each of the others because so much attached to both of them ; its members, who because of their training and experience and position perhaps understand some questions a little bettor than the others do, and may therefore be able to take a reasonably impartial view, will thus be free to help wherever they can without restriction, and they desire a place in the Councils of the industry accordingly. If your interest is even a little aroused, send your name and address to the General Secretary, Society of Technical Engineers, 102 Belgrave Road, London, S.W. 1, who will put you in touch with the Hon. Secretary of the Branch nearest to you."
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