INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 213, 3 June 1919, Page 8

INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS

A debate took place on industrial problems at tlie Exeter .Diocesan Conference, and the Mayor of Plymouth, (Mr. J. P. Brown) moved:— "That in view of the serious industrial trouble which threatens England, this conference is convinced that the only solution of tho situation is tho application of Christian principles to industrial problems." This was seconded by' the Sheriff of Ex« otev (Mr. W. Townseml) and addresses, followed by Mr. H. E. Kemp (Independent Labour Party), and Lord Hugh Cecil (both invited speakers). Mr. Kemp con ; eluded his address by saying that a great step liad been taken in the Whitley report. It was not claimed by tho more conservative Labour men that they could supply trained brains to manage presoiit-. day enormous businesses;, but tliey did claim the right to be consulted in everytiling that affected their personal convenience, conditions of employment, and, of course, their wages. The discipline ot the future would not be an imposed'discipline. It would bo tho discipline of laws and rules agreed to by the great mass of tho people. That was what business whs working to, and he was optimistic with regard to.the present position. Lord Hugh Cecil said that competition was fundamentally inconsistent: with Christianity, and there must.-come a day when it would givo way to something better. As to what tho clergy should do, they should speak the truth, and for that, they must have the gift of thinking with precision and speaking with exactness, and thero was nothing so desirable ns lhat economic questions. The clergy ought always to be the advocates of the poor. AYe must also have a ministry mnro comprehensive of all classes than tho present one. ft