Welsh Journals

The New Outlook for Labour, By W. Tudor Davies, 1HAVE been impressed with recent con- versations with Americans concerning the position of Labour in the United States. In that country labourers are rapidly be- coming capitalists as well as labourers. They are learning to think in terms of self-interest rather than in terms of fighting temper. They have grasped the economic wisdom in the pro- position that no one is likely to gain anything in this world unless he also contributes to the gain of someone else. Labour policy has taken a new step forward, though there are in the United States men who declare that it is a step back- ward. An American newspaper summed up the great change that is taking place as follows Labour is no longer the under-dog, fighting* with brute strength, growling, biting, and chew- ing. That period is done. That chapter is closed. Sheer physical force has taken Labour as far now as physical force can take it. Threats and blows have obtained all there is to be ob- tained by that method. Labour has got all it can get by violence. There is a great deal more to be got, however, and it is to be got by head- work, not by fist-work." Footballers know all too well that it is head-work that often wins a match where mere brute-force has failed. Well Labour in this country, as well as in the United States, has passed the brute-force period and it is entering upon the period of head-work. It has impressed this country with its strength, and now it must impress it with its wisdom. This new higher strategy of labour will, of course, demand new types of leaders. Leaders of men may be divided into two classes-first, those who appeal to the worst in human nature by talking continually about grievances, and secondly, those who speak of obligations and opportunities. It does not take any courage, for example, to talk to working men about the sins of capitalists or to capitalists about the sins of working men. It takes a good deal of courage to talk to either class about its own sins and its obligations to other classes." The working-classes of the United States are rapidly becoming the greatest financial force in the land. The total savings deposit has in- creased from 8 million dollars in 1914 to 20 mil- lion dollars in 1924, and the number of depositors in the same period from 11 million to 38 million. The holding of stock in the various industrial organisations by the workpeople themselves is stupendous. The growth of Labour banks has also been enormous. It was estimated that bv the end of 1924 the combined resources of the Labour banks in the United States would be in the neighbourhood of 150 million dollars. The saving power of American workingmen is so great that, if they would save and carefully invest their savings, in ten years they could be one of the dominating financial powers of the world so says one of America's leading bankers. It is said that the employees of the American railways could, in a comparatively short time, acquire a controlling interest in the American railways by the simple device of buying the ordinary stock until they owned more than fifty per cent. of it. Absentee ownership could be practically abolished in this way. Besides it would undo one of the evils which the working man has always levelled against the Industrial Revolution-namely, de- priving the worker of the ownership of his tools. The modern method ot securing the ownership of the instruments of their labour is by the pur- chase of shares by working-men in the compan- ies which employ them. We in this country have to face hard economic facts at the present time. The most urgent problem is to find work for over a million unem- ployed. This applies particularly to the coal in- dustry. I was interested recently in reading Professor Stanley Jevons's prophesy written as far back as 1865, when he startled and impressed the British mind by setting forth on the basis of careful statistical analysis the certainty that the constantly increasing depth from which this country's coal supply had to be drawn must at some future date shake Great Britain's paramount position in the world's trade. Stanley Jevons said the British mines are literally exhausted as a source of supply fuel will never be positively wanting, but we cannot long progress as we are now doing. The cost of producing coal would increase in far higher ratio than the increase of the depth at which it can be reached. Therefore England must in due course witness the coal produce of other countries approximat- ing to our own and ultimately passing it, and when the price of British coal shall have risen to a certain amount comparatively to the price in other countries, our main branches of trade will be doomed." Jevons spoke cautiously of the date, but he predicted that the cost of fuel in Britain must rise perhaps within a lifetime to a rate injurious to our commercial and manufac- turing superiority. The prophesy estimated waning power, possibly in 1915 or before, and certainly by 1965. In all conscience it is a de- pressing prophesy, and it behoves us all, high and low, to think of production and consolida- tion. One of the great ways in which we can foster the production of wealth in this country and face fierce competition abroad is for labour itself to form the biggest capital organisation in the country. In the days that are to come the farsighted employer will realise that it is as much a mark of good management to pay high wages as to register high dividends.