NEW SOCIAL ORDER.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 17017, 14 December 1920, Page 10

NEW SOCIAL ORDER.

, i A , i, LOED HALDANE'S COMMENTS. (raouora own coreesfondent.) LONDON, October 26. •Lord Haldane, at the Central Hall, £ day or two ago,, said:—The beginnings of a new social order arc apparent, and there is a movement towards equality [. which is away from the old relation of » master and servant. How are wo to get rid of the existing condition of *' things? There is umest every where, '• No employer can tell what. day will bring a crisis to his works. Tliis state of tilings is bad for industry. If we could get unbroken peaco and concen- .' tration on larger output, it would he i, well worth wlulo to have high wagos l and short hours everywhere. It is necessary to get out of this condition ;, of unsefctlement. What the country '-. j needs is production. The working ' classes cbjecfc to the domination of capital; I would substitute for the power of capital the principle of service, tho. object of service bwng the sucoe*:. of the industry. Profits could then be. divided proportionately to the services rendered. There are men to whom high salaries must he paid, but I do not mind that, provided they are malting a great business and are instrumental in producing more. Capital renders a gntat service in business, but all that it is entitled to is the interest required , to attract it. No matter what the rate of interest; when that had been decided, capital had said all that, as capital, it was entitled to say. It might be entitled to look after that interest, but it was not entitled to dominate. Residuary profits could bo shared to pay wages arid special services. The principle of service seems the most hopeful way out of the present difficulties, and with that I couple the quoetion of leisure. It is a monstrous state of affairs that out of the entire population not more than one in ten has any education at all after the apo of fourteen. On the principles of service and education we could lay the foundations of industrial peace. We should see that, ns in 1870. the State undertook ' the education of youth, it should now undertake ths* wider and larccer education of democracy. If v;o fail to meet the situation hnlf-way we shall have it forced upon us In a more ' disagreeable why, and I am for nntieipatincr and working out a sehrtne while ,wo still havo time.. If we do that I am confident of the result. ' Lord Leverhulme's Views. I/ord LevcTihulme. in an address at? the O.P. Club, said: — "America is a country that every Englishman ought' to visit, as they have more to learn from a visit across the herring pond than they could learn j in a lifetime if they stayed at home. ; The same rules prevail tnere as hero. j Straight business in America is enccess- ! ful business, iust as straight business j here is eucoessfvfl business. Right 'j down in their hearts Americans appre-*i- ; ate what is good in us, and in the I manufactures we are producing. I hnd to scrap a great many of the ideals with which I started business. One of them was that, salaries should be paid on a basis of merit. After fifty-four years of businoss I am receiving; no salary at all.' _ (Laughter.) If you enter into business, and fail you arc n, fool, but if you enter into business and employ tens of -thousands of men, and! are always Teady -witih their money on you are exploiting vour fel-low-men to your own advantage. Another axiom I had was diligence. After fifty-four ye'ars of business I find fhat I am having to work harder than ever, and there is no sight of repose. Recently I read that tho ideal system of employment was good wages, a bonus ' on production, and profit-sharing. I j yegan thai thirty-two years ago, but I j found m practice that such a scheme* | on'y excited the opposition of organised I trade unionism. Industries can best be run by those who havo given ? lifetime's study to them. In England) there is a ladder by which t'he offi>o boy can riso to the chairmanship of a comP°py*, E. ut that means innumerable acts of Relf-deninl, and devotion through* ; a lone; life to the service of the puMici i and tiho study of business. One of tho i main necessities of a boy who starts in ' that way is that he should love his occupation. Whilst profits are essential to the financial stability of a business, they are the least part of the attraction to a man Who approaches his occupation m the true spirit of an artist in the endeavour to build up a business that will bo a source of pride and pleasure With ah respect to Lord Hal««3 '♦ 3 i OU *if a,lnot cn ? a g« a man to undertake the responsibilities of a business on a salary, however great. Thatwill never prove attractive to the riel't man. Anyone who has tho idea of organising a board composed of workmen j 15 ' 01, a ? d • Wltho,,t imagination to build up a business, is doomed to' J«"f *i i m 22 musfc start at the bottom or the ladder and be trained. All . I]*™™* ° f lawyers that thev ran do i this that, and the other thine bv Am l of .Parliament, and ignore tffe "vi'al rwil Pr Ti WUS training, aPe doomed to failure. The only practical, commonh! fiVf P TT^Vt 11 1S thafc a man ahouldi + f ° r thc P° sltio » he is called will fit him but practical tsinine.«-