THE HIDDEN SPRINGS OF INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 55, 7 March 1919, Page 6

THE HIDDEN SPRINGS OF INDUSTRY

Threats to strike are .bringing to light in Britain some pertinent facts about profits. For instance, evidence given before tho Coal Commission showed that before the war the average profit of owners of coal-mines was Is per ton; in tlw firrt hall o£ WlB, 3s 6|d p«sr ten jhi *M* Utter haii, 4* 844 per ten, wjuch

represents an extra charge on the coal consumer of £25,000,000 annually. At first glance this statement will arouse suspicion of private exploitation, but ns a'matter of fact 95 per cent, of this extra profit returns, owing to the war taxation, to the State. Seeing that the principal " profiteers ". are the people and not the mine-owners," it is rather surprising that the latter did .not communicate the facts voluntarily, instead of waiting—as they seem to have done—to have their hands forced by a hostile demonstration and a statutory inquiry. In other indußtries are seen similar struggles for information, attended with similar results. The fact is that there is a tendency of employees to insist more and more on knowing details of profits, costs, and \>th'er economic factors pertinent to the inner working of the industry in which they are engaged. Their thirst for knowledge may be legitimate or illegitimate, convenient or inconvenient, but at any rate it is a force to be reckoned with, and should be handled with tact.

Employees may discover essential industrial data—as in the case under review— by raising trouble, downing tools, and securing an investigation that will drag internal facts- before the public; or they may accomplish their object by mejns of permanent joint committees constituted, on Whitley lines, of employer and employee— joint committees which. shall consultatively, or even actively, participate in the management of the business. The first-mentioned method in that of the big stick, and employers will be unwise if they encourage it by refusing legitimate information, or by yielding information under pressure. They must surely see that the moral value of concessions— whether in the shape of information or of-wages—lies in their being given voluntarily. And in no way can this sort of giving be regulated better than under the Whitley system, for an employer will surely find it preferable to trust a committee of his own workmen with business data, than to have the same dragged out of him by a public inquiry. Consultation begets co-operation; and workers' delegates acquainted with inside facts, and saddled wiJh responsibility and authority as committee-men, are not likely to make or to instigate impossible demands.

In a general way, it is beginning to be recognised that there are certain economic adjustments affecting so many people's lives that they cannot for ever be made behind closed doors. The atta on secret diplomacy, whether just or not, is the forerunner of a world-wide atta':' upon secret business; and ther only way to take the sting out of that attack is to anticipate it with concessions that will meet its legitimate, objects..