AFTER THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2783, 30 May 1916, Page 7

AFTER THE WAR

TREND OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT GREAT WORK FOR ENGINEERS THE UPLIFTING OF THE MASSES, . 3 1". / .An interesting address on anti-war industrial development was delivered by Mr. Harold Oox., M.A., before the British Institution of Civil Engineers on March 7 last. "The subject upon which I am asked to speak to-night," said Mr. Cox, "is 'In dustrial Development,' and that ofnecesr sity innst. have reference to problems that come after the war. : I want to begin by paying that, although it is right we should think of what comes after the war, we must never forget that , our present business is to win the war. But just as in time of peace it is necessary to prepare for the possibility.. of war, so in time of war it is our duty to prepare for thu certainty of peace. .When peace is declared it is certain that various things will happen. Some three millions of soldiers will return from the war seeking "work; hundreds of thousands . of.'munition workers will be discharged; au enormous number of separation allowances will bo discontinued. Those changes must nave a tremendous effect upon the whole of our social life; so serious an effect ■that many people'who have thought deeply about the problem oven, fear tho possibility of industrial evolution after tho war. At present we have made no provision for. these difficulties, that are certain to come. There is a good deal of vague talk,, but. vague talk does not set industry in motion. .- We <havo got to plan in advance, and I venture to think that , the problem is one witli which the Institution of Civil Engineers is eminently fitted to deal. Extension of External Trade. ."There are two aspeots of the problem. There is the . domestic and the external. According to their political predilections we find various < people laying stress on one o rthe other, but I venture ta think that we have to keep both clearly in .view. As regards external problems this is certain—that without our external trade .we could only maintain in this little island a very small population with great discomfort.' If Englishmen had been content to live by taking in one another's washing, there would never have been a British Empire. • The extension of our extornal trade is one of tho principal objects we have to keep in view: it is important not only from the eoonomic point of view, but also fitom tl-fi political point of view. ; Personally, I think th/ 5 greatest danger we have experienced from the German trade. is'due to. the manner in jvhich Germans have used their trade connections, to build' up political agencies in remote parts of the British Empire and in neutral countries. At this very moment it is known that.. German trade agencies are actingjas spies for the Ger•man Government in various portions of the Emuire. • ' ■

, : Those Consular Reports. , "ft may be said that tho Government lias already done something for external trade. It has. It maintains a Consular Service. That: service;'is ,very largely manned by gentlemen, who are considered not- good enough for .the 3}ipiomatio Service. .• In addition many of our Consuls are persons of foreign-nationality who happen to be .settled in . particular .countries where wish to have representatives. Sometimes, these British Consuls are more closely connected with German than with British' trade interests. :• ... -^ 8 . Consular, reports,,at. one time m my life I . used to read a good Jiiany of them,. They consist very lately of . statistics,. generally published ,'two Tears after date. . Most",of these Consular Keports, with a monotony that is wearipome, make a habit in reputing- the par-rot-cry that Englishmen and Scotchmen (To not.fcnow . their, own business and ought to learn- from Germans. In spits o£ the admitted n?ed for'economy, .'.these' out-of-date and valueless reports are still being: published at .tho rat© of two or three a/week. It : is sheer-waste of -nubile, money. . 1 . I submit to you that* no consular service controlled by the Government will ever be of any practical use. The question arises: Why should not business men organiso their own consular service? Let me give a practical illustration of what is 111 my mind.. Some years ago our friend Sir. John Wolfe Barrv . . . started the idea that;it. would be poseible tor 'tho various engineering societies lir this country to organise a. Standards Committee to. establilh common standards to which all manufacturers In 1901 lie got. together a lommittee on which are represented five important bodies, the Institution of Civil ijnginears, .the Institution, of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Nival Architects, the Iron and. Steel Institute, and the Institute, of Electrical Engineers: The work; done by the committee during the 15 years n. has been in operation is immense. It has established standards for hundreds of different article's, from Tailway rails to elcctric glow lamps. . If an organisation, started entirely . bv individual enterprise, can thus build up a system of standards which is of worldwide (application, is-it not possible to conceive a large organisation, representing practically all the trades of the county, which shall deal with the great problem of developing our'trade abroari-an organisation for collecting trade information from agents, employed abroad, s-ys-tematismg that, information., and distrifc uting it among tho manufacturers primarily concerned?

Future of Our Soldiers. "I now turn to the. equally important but much more difficult side of industrial development—the domestic side. The most .urgent problem we have to deal with ia the position of .tho 'men when they return from the war. If that, problem is not dealt with we shall certainly' have Chaos, and, as some people think, pernaps revolution. Here again the'problem Js largely one for engineers. It is their: business to plan enterprises, and it is certainly within their power to prepare plans which could be put .into immediate operation as soon as peace is declared. Of course there..will ba in any case tho very obvious work of repairing roads and railways owing to the damage done, and to the neglect of repairs while the war is in progress; but, in addition, it is possible .to prpparonew schemes of public utility As one example, let me tako the case of lieiv l oads and new. streets. They certainly- ought to be planned in advance, and I* should like on that' point. to mako this proviso, that in planning new streets we think not merely of the needs of better: locomotion, but also of the needs of better living. A town ought not merely to be a place for motor-cars and motorbuses to rush through,.but primarily for people to live in in comfort and decency. I'dare suy some of those present arc members of the London Society, a useful society, founded a few years ago with the idea of making a more liabftable and moro beautiful city. At present we are bound to confess that the greater part of London is neither very attractive nor very beautiful to look upon, .there are hundreds of miles of dreary streets and squalid houses. I can imagine no finer task to be taken in hand at the end of the war than the reconstruction of a • very large part of the capital of 1 i iPP" 0 : That, I may remark, is a task that will not be finished in a day or a year, but the after-war problems will J°t m a day or a year. We have got to think not merely for the few months when the men are coming back and seeking work and finding none; wo have to think also of the future and the possibility of making permanent arrangements which will meet the difficulties created by the war itself. Higher Standard of Comfort. "The main point is this, that our people have become accustomed, and rightly accustomed, to a higher standard of wage, due to tho increased demand for labour, and what we havo got to consider is how that higher standard of comfort and how that higher wage con be maintained after the war. To my mind, ' {his is the problem of problems. "I venture to ask a series of questions In order to help us to solve that problem jfiret of all: Why'have the masses of our £00T>le eo long been copdemned to live

in poky houses and in mean streets, many of them with insufficient food? You answer that it is the result of low wages, 1 ask aaain: Was it necessary the wages should be so low? The reply is that thcwork was worth so little, or, in other words, the worker produced 60 little. But was it necessary that the worker should produce so little?. What are we doing now? We have nearly 1,000,000 men either fighting or training tu light. In addition, wo have large numbers of men, as well as women, producing materials :for fighting. Yet, in spite of this enormous drain upon our population wo are maintaining the whole of our people in a much higher standard of comfort than ever before, and in addition —and this is jv fact which is forgotten.—we are keeping up our' export trade, which wo should have regarded a few years ago as marvellous in amount. As most of you know, during the last 10 or 15 years our export trade has been rapidly on the upgrade. But the remarkable fact is this, that in 1915, in spite of the tremendous diversion of industry due to the war, the value of our export trade was as great as it was six years ago. Of course, part of the high value is due to tho rise in'prices. Making allowances for. that factor, I think we may say that our export trade last year was in volume equal to whut.lt was 12 or 13 years ago.

What of the Workers? "But after all, the question of wages is the fundamental question. As long as yon have low output, so long must you have low waged. The workman cannot Teceive more tnan the product of his work is worth. That is an axiom which I am afraid a good many workmen never seem to bo ablo to understand. More than that, the workman cannot receive so much as the product of his work. I know the Socialists profess that the workman ought to receive-, the whole product, forgetting that a large part of that product is due to the machine which the workman does not own and did not make, In this audience it is unnecessary to elaborate this point. It is a matter of common equity that the owners of the maohineand the organisers of the busi- • ness are entitled to a portion of the product as well as the men who work the machinery. Unfortunately, we still find tlmt the workmen in many places look upon improvements in. machinery with very .much ,the same suspicion as in the: beginning iof tho nineteenth ceni tury, when they used to break the power looms. It is very curious, because if you come to think of it, tho very first instinct of man, however uncivilised he may be, is to make a tool to help him in his work; Indeed, man might almost be defined as a tool-using animal. A machine is only an elaborate tool. _ I venture to lay down this proposition, that, so far as material comfort is ran* cerned, the progress of mankind is dependent upon the progress'of machinery.. "There is. the further unfortunate fact normally, that is to say, in peace time we are not even making full use of the machines we have got—very much less than full use. During war there has been a l ' greatly increased output, owing, us I eaid'hefore, to moral considerations, because you havo appealed to the men» not only on the economic side. but . also on tho moral: side, by asking litem to think of their country as well as of their pay. ' But after the war yon will have the same difficulty as you had before. The increased output will certainly cease unless the wages problem can bo satisfactorily, dealt with. The wages problem really. amounts to this: Tho question whether the workman's share of the total product ii adequate. I admit that there is no general way of deciding precisely how much shall , go to capital, how. much 6ball go lo manage-meufc-one of tho most important factors of all—and how much to labour; but I think we here can candidly admit that,, looking at the .problem broadly as a whole, the workman's share of the product is not adequate. Just think what the life of.tho masses of the workpeople is. They live in tiny houses, which aro very often overcrowded; the poorer workpeople., at any rate, undoubtedly have insufficient food; all of the workpeople, in my judgment, have too short holidays; in many .cases tho work is horribly monotonous; and finally,; the position is uncertain. Too Much to Expect of Human Nature. , "There was posted up this notice: 'Any workman employed here is liable to be dismissed at an hour's notice. The manngemant dots not want any longer'notice about him.' . Think what it means to a man to be in danger of having his living cut off at an hour's notice. How can you expect a man who is living under such precarious conditions to tako an interesfcin his own workj, or in his employers' prosperity. You are asking too much of human nature when these are the conditions . under which men have to work. Happily, such extreme conditions only ap. ply to a minority of out people. They ought not to apply to aflybody. '* "On the other hand, as contrasted with the mean lives of the masses, you havo in the upper classes, in many cases, an' ostentation of wealth and a deliberate flaunting of, luxury in the face of tho poor: Is it surprising that tho Socialists should find eager listeners when they preach the doctrine of class war? To mo it would be surprising if they did not. Nor has this spirit of class - jealousy' ..vanished even now altogether from amongst us.-- I believe tve shall make no progress towards a solution of the wages problem until it is universally recognised that a manual worker, if he can get it, is eutitled £o as high a standard of personal and domestic comfort as tho brainworker. Personally, I should be glad if it wore the custom among manual workers to tako. a holiday, upon the Continent just, as it is amongst professional workers.

"But tho manual worker will only got this_ high standard of comfort by more offioiont working, and . he will only consent to become more efficient if it is proved to him that there lies his interest, and also tho interest of his comrades. The latter consideration is as important as the former. It is a'great credit to the working .classes that the spirit of comradeship docs effect their individual action to an enormous extent, and h man will frequently sacrifice his own private interest bc-cans'e he thinks it is for the good of the.men among whom ho is working. Therefore we shall.get.no real progress until you can demonstrate to the working classes as a body that thoir individual and collective interest lies in more efficient production.

If wo tan solve this moral problem, X see no limit to the progress of nur country, Eor as soon as you secure the concurrence of the workman it will become possible to develop immensely the efficiency of our manufacturing processes, «/ as to obtain an increased output at less cost, while paying higher wages."