FIVE YEARS’ TRUCE

Evening Star, Issue 17542, 23 December 1920, Page 2

FIVE YEARS’ TRUCE

INDUSTRIAL READJUSTMENT PLEA. The ‘Observer’ features an interview with Sir Chas. Wakefield (a former Lord Mayor of London) upon Iris scheme for bringing about a five years’ truoe to industrial disputes. In its essentials it is a proposal for a great representative conference of employers and employed—an economic and industrial Parliament—whose sub-commitees should cover the following ground: ■ 1. An attempt to standardise wages schemes on the basis of a cost-of-livmg movable scale, either for the period ‘of the truce or for so long as the excess profits tax, or any similar measure, is in force. 2. Methods of increasing output and establishing production under undisturbed conditions. 3. A limitation of working hours with the double purpose of avoiding overfatigue to the workers and of absorbing the maximum number of those at present unemployed. 4. In co-operation with the Government and European Powers, manufacturers and workers to evolve schemes for using our products in re-establishing the impoverished peoples and industries of Europe. “What has to be done to-day,” he said, “ is to bring home to the consciousness of the people the fact that times are not yet to be considered normal. That, I know, seems a simple and self-evident proposition ; but, as a matter of fact, few of >us a€t as if with a clear knowledge of the, true position of affairs. The juggernaut' of war is not easily stopped, and to-day, nearly two years after the signing of the armistice, it still takes its. toll of victims. “The victims now are mothers and children, dying of starvation in Central and Northern Europe, ex-service men in every country unable to obtain re-entry into civil life and occupation, and, indeed, millions of honest folk struggling for subsistence against almost overwhelming odds. “It is not as obvious and dramatic a spectacle as that of a great war at its most bitter crisis, but as a reality it is almost equally grave. In a word, it is European civilisation, to which we owe all.the glory of the past and the achievements of the present age, which is at stake. It is European civilisation starvation and disease, and the trage<iy of it is that the majority of the people in . this country appear to be absolutely unaware of the existence and nature of the struggle. “There is a vein- strong case even in normal times for the creation of an organisation representing employers and employed on equal terms, to which trade disputes should in certain circumstances bo referred for consideration and advice. Such a body should not infringe upon the rights of either side to organise and confer when, where, and how they please. It would adjudicate with a full knowledge of all the facts and with absolute fairness, and its findings would express, as nearly as any man-made organisation could, the love of justice and the desire for general happiness which is shared by most of us. “Although it would have no legal power to enforce its decisions, it would interpret the supremacy of the general interest over any sectional interest. It is difficult to see why this idea was not more fully worked out before the war; but I think I am right in saying that it was nevergiven a full or fair trial. However, I am not at this moment concerned with permanent measures for dealing with industrial disputes after they have reached a certain stage. What I am anxious to do is to convince the public, and tlirough them the Government, of the imperative necessity of treating the circumstances of the day as in the highest degree abnormal and dangerous. “It is no use at all disguising the fact that in the two years that have elapsed since the conclusion of the major hostilities neither we nor any other nation have made the progress towards pacification and reparation for which wo had reason to

hope. ft 1 “War, not peace, teigns over enormous ireas of Europe. The terrible scourge of jyphus is spreading eastwards. Trade is lesitant and apparently weakening; and, In spite of the world demand for food, llothing, and all kinds of machinery which British producers could supply, unemployment is increasing. I 11 My suggestion is that a great representative conference should be called, representing in equal numbers Capital and labor, to which the Government should give the fullest possible information on Ihe world-need for British goods, _ the muses of the prevalent dislocation of infcrnational trade, and the prospects of imBrovement. Without going into the poliHcal aspects of the question, it is obvious Bir example, that we do not know the ■hole truth about Russia, and it is equally ■jvious that the Russian situation is the ■ay to a great part of the trade stagnalon and the ever-increasing' Cost of Living. | “As things are, we are not pulling our Bill weight abroad, and at home some of |s are taking short cuts towards higher I ages and prosperity, unconscious of the |ict that broader views and greater paBence are necessary if the corner that ■ides peace from our war-worn eyes is It last to he turned.”