On Friday, March 31st, a conference was opened at Leeds
composed of members of local bodies (men and women) who were also either Socialists or belonged to the Labour party. At the first meeting Mr. Sidney Webb, who presided, gave the conference some excellent advice on the subject of large salaries. " They must," he said, "generously remunerate their officials in addition to securing proper and standard rates of wages for manual workers. The local governing bodies should go in for the highest quality of brain workers as well as the best class of manual workers." They must not underpay officials on whom heavy responsibilities were imposed. In order to show 'how great was the field of municipal enter- prise, Mr. Sidney Webb mentioned that there are now thirty thousand local governing bodies, all of which have been created during the last seventy years. The bodies employ four hundred thousand persons, and " directly administer four hundred millions of capital." On the next day of the con- ference—i.e., last Saturday—Mr. Sidney Webb dealt with " the ladder of learning "—the series of scholarships which, beginning with the Board-schools, allow the cleverest boys to climb to the Universities—and pointed out how the scholar- ships, to be really useful, must include maintenance. It is curious to note from the tone and temper of the discussions at the conference that neither the high salaries nor the ladder of learning met with much sympathy. It is very difficult to persuade the British working man, whether he calls himself a Tory or a Radical, that any man can possibly be worth more than £10 a week, or that education beyond the three "R's" is any good. In time, however, he will learn wisdom on both these points.
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