CAPITAL AND LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 113, 10 February 1928, Page 8

CAPITAL AND LABOUR

NEED FOR HAPPIER RELATIONS ‘‘lf Capital really wants co-opera-tion, it must be paid lor, like other important assets; and Capital will never have made a better investment,” says Mr. B. Seebohm Rowntree, in the “Manchester Guardian.” “If we could gauge the annual loss to industry through lack of cordial co-opera-tion, a loss infinitely greater than that which is measured by strikes and lockouts, we should appreciate more fully the need for happier relationships. We only stand tit the threshold ol the treasnse chamber, which will be opened to us when Capital and Labour really cooperate. But if we would enter into it, the representatives of Capital must be men of vision, and they must have the power of leadership, for it is on their initiative that progress will chiefly depend. We are steadily increasing our efficiency on the material side of industry. Engineering, chemistry, accountancy, and technology of every description are studied with meticulous and scientific care, and it is essential that this should continue. But we give little scientific thought to the problems of securing the best serv ices from our human instruments, and efficiency, which fails to eliminate the most important single source of waste in production, is at best very one-sid-ed in its operation. Our outlook must become both more human and more profound before we can achieve industrial prosperity.”