t to what
are our common aspirations. One I have seen referred to frequently is
one I would like to see always avoided. It is the remedy of placing
before workmen as a necessity a greatly increased output from their
manual labour in the future; not that I am opposed to an increased
output, but I am not going to demand it as part of the bargain which
should itself be arranged and carried out, even if it did not
necessarily secure for us any greater sum total of wealth than we now
enjoy; for poor as we may have accounted ourselves we have seen in the
past few years how vastly we can spend and lend in support of any high
purpose to which the country may devote itself. Poverty can never again
be claimed by the nation as a whole whenever there is a proper and
reasonable demand for any social change or reform which may be
necessary and proper. Men are asking for a greater yield, for a greater
output, for building up our wealth higher than ever before, so as to
repair the ravages of the war, if for no other purpose. With all those
objects I agree, but we must not make them as terms to the worker in
exchange for those conditions of unity which we are asking our workers
to arrange with us. Greater output, increased efficiency, a bigger and
better return of wealth from industrial and agricultural energy, can
well come out of a better working system, a better rearrangement of
combined effort, a more extensive use of machinery, a more satisfactory
sub-division of labour, a wider employment of the personal experience
and technical skill of our industrial classes, a higher state of
administrative efficiency and management in the workshops, the creation
of a better and more humane atmosphere in the workshops. Out of all of
these things a greater yield of wealth could be produced, and it is
along those lines we must go in order not merely to convert but to
convince the workman that he is not being used as a mere tool for some
ulterior end for the benefit of some smaller class in the country. It
has been said by some that Trade Union restrictions and limitations must
go. I candidly admit there have been Trade Union regulations and
conditions which perhaps have stood in the way of some increased output,
but I am not here to apologise for Trade Union rules. Every class has
its regulations and rules. The more powerful and the more wealthy the
class the more rigid and stringent those rules have been. However, the
class which was most in need