Labour After the War.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15929, 16 June 1917, Page 8

Labour After the War.

Mr Lloyd George's anxiety to get at the root cause of industrial unrest is probably duo lees to his concern for the maintenance of industrial efficiency during the war than to his reflections upon the gravity of tho problems of industry that will remain over after the war. For tho present, despito the occasional disturbances of industrial continuity, organised Labour is as much under tho influence of tho new spirit created by tho Avar a 6 in any other section of tho community. A littlo idealised, Professor L. P. Jacks's description of England at war is true enough:— "In spito of"all wo have suffered, and "have still to Suffer: tho loss of our " friends and kinsmen; tho awful "anxieties for those at tho front; tho " knowledge of tho immense miseries of "the nation at war; the gravo uncer- " taiiitiea of the future —in spite of this, "and all else in the catalogue of evils, "I am convinced that th© mind of "England is much calmer than it was " before the war. . . . England " spending her money, and knowing for " what she spends it, has more peace "of mind than England her "money, but in grave doubt and un- " certainty as to the social and indivi- " dual uses to which it will be pnt." In this statement of the present condition of Britain there is an indication of tho difficulty that will follow tho war—> when organised labour, conscious of its contribution to the work of the war, and fresh from a period in which industry went on without the old condition of ft conflict between profits and Wages, Will find itself back in a world in which the common object of victory and the preservation of the nation is apparently over and dono with. All serious-minded men are thinking, when they can, of th© best way of meeting these new conditions. Legislation must necessarily be tho machinery for shaping tho now world, but before tho legislation there must com© education and new ideas. Tho direction in which the education should tend, and tho ideas with which men should bo lsd .to familiariso themselves, were stated by Sir Edward Carson in an address in London two or threo weeks ago. Labour, he eaid, would nover again be satisfied, hor ought it to bo satisfied, to bo in the same condition as before tho war. "Wo have to "prove to labour.that if its tru© interests arc to expand and progress, " that- will only be done on a sound " and solvent basis by tho organisation of th© unexploited resources of " tho Empire." Ho would not have Imperialism dinned into tho workers' eas. "You must rather teach them "of Empire union and greatness, in " which each unit is to bo a help and "strength to tho other tinits. You " must teach them that the patriotism " inherent in them is best for their "material progress. Just as by tho " building up of a business they get a " freer flow for their energies, and "greator resources for higher wages, so " by the expansion of tho Empiro and "by tho exploiting of untapped fields " of tho Empire you will bring home to " them that wo have great material resources which can place them on a "surer and better foundation of good "terms nnd happiness at homo than "havo ever fallen to tho lot of tho "proletariat of any other race.'' To havo put forward such a proposal bofore the war would havo been to invito tho anger and ridicul© of organised Labour. They would havo said it was an invitation to tho pooplo of to-day to wait a thousand years for an improvement of their conditions: and they would havo added that tho only thing to do was to demand, and keep on demanding, higher wages. But they must be dull indeed, to whatever clasfc they belong, who havo not learned in' tho last three years that tho common welfare is best promoted by increased production, and in an enterprising use of th© resources open to exploitation throughout tho Empire. In Germany tho wholo people was got to understand the value to Germany of intense production and commercial expansion. They even undertook this j horriblo war because it seemed likely to open tho way to tho prosperity in which all would share, and they would have achieved their aims if Britain had I not risen up in their path, and the

armies of Germany been stayed. Tho workers of tho British Empire must bo persuaded to take a conscious part iu the development of all the Empire's resources. There will still be foolish

and selfish men—those Labour extremists -whom the war has left visibly unehnnged—who will counsel a continuance of the old policy of industrial warfare, strikes, and the limitation of output. It will be more easy than formerly to expose the folly of such counsel, for the active co-operation of organised Labour in the building up of the Empire's industrial and commercial strength will be quick to produce sensible results, and to prove the reality of Sir Edward Carson's promise that such a policy will provido a better foundation for good terms and happiness than has ever fallen to tho lot of any people.