MR. BALFOUR'S ART OF LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 413, 23 January 1909, Page 13

MR. BALFOUR'S ART OF LIFE.

;the pleasures of hapjtworjl \; , : Mr. Balfour, as president, delivered a suggestive speech to the Labour Copartnership Assooiatipn; at a,meeting- at Church' House on/December 1,; over which Mr. Shackleton, M -?-) .Presided, arid'-to which- Mr. Asquith sent his-wishes for success. . Copartnership, said Mr. Balfour, had' pro-' duced happy result's. .Thoir ideal'was complete, copartnership—that - all those who- carried on the.work should be associated as partners, in all that tho work brought'input they, recognised- ,thnt(:the-. ideal -might not- be.carried, out with- advantage ; in- every' industry. .It' was.-impossible'to .carry on ; a difficult: business requiring initiative, -.courage,- risk, to. be taken, the: instant adapta*l<?ni •■** means to' ends, .by means of a coinnyttec. /Really good- work of an original kind;was always carried on by an individual. In :Ins belief; the abler the committee the more:-.inefficient it would be. (Laughter.) ■"■■: ■• .'The_true- system was h'ke the management' by;.a;'Cabinet of tho' institutions of a great' Empire'. .The head of an office managed that office,!.but in questions of doubt or difficulty, consulted..the Prime Minister or the.whole Cabinet, but it must,bo one man who did the thing, not: the committee. There wero.'great departments,of piiblio life where, : owing to: that ..not being sufficiently, considered, the result was an enormous waste of brains and /time and temper—with -W amazingly indifferent output. .-;:;./ Copartnership would 1 riot prevent -that- initiative- which: depended, on men and transfer it to the -incompetent hands a committee. It could most efficiently ' be. carried out-in tho first, instance, iri well-established industries which had little..of the speculative element. ■-■.■; ■'. .'• , ; /., '•■ We lost a great deal by talking as if the labour of a'man was in itself an evil which became tolerable because' ho was paid for it. Ho did not" say that labour, was a pleasure, but unless ins work ho did in lifo could >be inherently interesting wo had not got to tho root of any social problem." The art of life was,to make unintero-iiing parts into-an interesting whole.; No man's work itself of an exhilarating character. Sitting in tho'House of Commons and-lis-tening to speeches was not in itself exhilarating—(laughter)—but that, did not prevent work in tho, House_ of Commons from being extremely interesting.