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PREMIER'S CALL TO THE* NATION.

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PREMIER'S CALL TO THE- NATION. How Britain Might Save (8 the World. The first sitting of the joint com- mittee of the National Industrial Con- ference, held on Tuesday at the Cen- tral Hall, Westminster, was distin- guished by a brilliant speech from the Prime Minister. He urged the im- perative need of the producthm of an amicable understanding between capital and labour which will remove the general wave of unrest which has swept over industry since the armis- tice. The only business before1 the com- mittee was the appointment of sub- committees, as agreed on at the nation al conference of employers and work- ers which met last week, and from which the present joint committee of 60 was appointed. The sub-committees aro to report to a mecting of the general conference which will be held not later than April 5. Sir Thomas Munro. chairman of the Commission, presided, and among those who accompanied the Prime Minister wore Sir Robert Home, Minister or Labour. Mr Lloyd George said: "I am off this afternoon to take part in the Peace Congress, which I hope will settle, and scttV satisfactorily, the peace of the world. ("Hear, hear.") If that is not settled satisfactorily, which means on a just- basis, it will not be peace. You are sitting at a peace j congress, the importance of which, I am sure, must have, impressed itself in your mind. It is probably more important in its bearing, not merely upon the settlement of immediate problems, but on the settlement of the future of- this country than perhaps you may realise. The world is in a a w of convulsion and unrest, and I would not like to predict what will happen in the next year or two Russia has gone to pieces, and we arc getting appeals, not so much for arms as for food, because the people are dying there by hundreds of thousands. I am sorry to say the symptoms. are that Germa ny is going to pieces also. There is a. lack of cohesion, there is a lack of definite, clear indication of the way in which the country is goirig to. inarch, and the suffering there is be- ginning to be very acute, and it is spreading. BRITAIN AS A MODEL., "I should not 00 a bit surprised, if this old country, not for the first time. would be the Ltiid that will save civil- isation in more senses than ono. But it will only save civilisation if all classes feel that civilisation here is on a basis of justice and fair play to all classes. There must be a sense of con- fidence in the minds of all classes that they are getting what is right and what is just from the community. My appeal is this: You are settling the future of this country, but you may be doing more than that. You may he settling the future of civilisation. You may be making the model for civilisa- tion which all lands will turn to and say, 'Let us follow Britain.' It is not the first I time Britain has given the principles upon which liberty and democratic government has bc-t- n settled in other lands. I want you to do something hero that all lands in their despair will turn once more to Britaift and say: 'See how they hjtve settled things there. They have settled things there in such a way that jus- tice" has been done to all classes. Let lS follow the example of that little isand in the sea once more.' "I am talking with the full sense of the perils ahead. Civilisation, unless we try and save it, and save it to-  may be precipitated A-nd  '? ??s. It would not be het rlit it has happened in the ?he<"? time it has happened in the i i• s orv of ? w.or t at g re sit civil- isa ions h? ? destroye d and you It b E'f'n ÛI'Otroye, an you have to build ?p frcm' th bottom agam. ?w I ?? Britain to save 1t this tlln('. and it cannot s?vo it by the triumph of any class. It oan ()nl S",N-(' :t by the triumph of justice and fair play to all classes alike. Ap- -Ind f, Pl?'y to 'III class'? s alike. lp- COMMISSION'S RESPONSIBILITY. | "That is the spirit in which I want you to approach those great problems in front of you. Do not try each to get the advantage over the other. You are judges for your class; you aro judges for the nation. the nation is j taking an interest in this, believe me, which is beyond anything that you can imagine. They are looking to it j to save the State, and I want you to feel that you are here, the trustees for the whole country, the millions of workpeople and the employers, and those whom you would not classiiy strictly in either category, but who are all, at. any rate, part of this great land. "Employers might get temporary i advantages which will in the end ruin them. It has got beyond merely get- ting a. temporary triumph. They must look at the long run. If they want the whole fabric, as it were, of society t obo secure they must see that the foundations are secure. They are not Thero is a good deal of what is rotten beneath them. That has got to be put right. "It -is a mistake," continued the Premier, "to keep men working longer than is absolutely necessary for an efficient discharge of the duties of tfio -tri.(Ie. On the other hand, we must be,ar in mind not merely that we have to deal with foreign competi tion, but you have to produce an adequate sup- ply of distribution amongst the whole of a groat community of 45 millions of people. There must be a. limit both ways. and what you want Nis to find exactly whore the legitimate bound- arV is. Use your common-sense—get a lino which you feel on the whole has met the justice of the case. '"That is the case with wages and the hours of labour. Then there is tho fe rA unemployment, which, I believe has gone more deeply into the minds of the working classes, and impressed them more deeply than almost any problem in modern society. And I can understand it. There are so many of them who have gone through the experience of unemployment that the dread of a repetition of its hapnts them through life. I. am sure the employers will not mind me speaking quite frankly about this. Unemploy- ment to them means loss of profits. It doos not mean the loss of comfort, it does not mean distress ;it means great anxiety of mind, and that is import- ant. but it does not mean any suffer- ing to themselves, and what is far more important for any humane per- son. for his children, and for those who depend upon him. SPECTRE OF UNEMPLOYMENT. "But for tho workman it does. You have only got to use your imagina- tion, and put yourselves in the posi- tioii of a. workman who is out of 'work for, say, two or three months, with- out a penny piece, except what he can get on the credit of the trades- men, who rely upon his honesty. What they have suffered under these con- diÛons, only those who have lived and j worked among the working classes j possibly realise. We ought to banish that. It ought to be done, and it can be done. The industries of the coun- try somehow or other ought to be able, with the assistance of the State, to devise some means that will, at any rat-e, make it possible that when un- employment does oome-and. it is al- most impossible to prevent it, be- oause nobody has hitherto been able to ooirfmand the fluctuations of trade, and say they never shall be—there ought to be some sort of scheme that will make it impossible that distress, at any rate, and the pain and the hunger and famine shall haunt the homo of honest people who are only seeking an opportunity for work. "It is a hard punishment that you don't give the criminal. To punish the man who is seeking work with three months want of food fo rhimself and his children—the State that permits that ought to be ashamed of itself. (Loud cries of approval from the Lab- our representatives). I do hope you will be able, before you leave here, to devise some sort of scheme so that when the periods of unemployment oome there 'will be some sort of or- ganisation that will see that there is 11¿J suffering in honest homes. PRODUCTION THE GREAT NEED. "I should like to say another thing if the workmen will allow me. I know it is a very delicate task, because they are suspicious of it, and employers can help to remove that caflse of suspicion. I am convinced that the futuro suc- cess and prosperity of this country de- pends upon increasing its productivity. You have got to do -it. Of course, there is a grcat deal of waste in tho organisation of industry. I saw enough of that in the organisation of the Ministry of Munitions. When we had to put pressure on, and everybody did his best, and all manufacturers were pulling together, as they did, .somehow or other we were able to get a bigger output. I am' sure that it is possible by scientific methods by better organisation amongst others, by having a complete understanding with the working people, and making them feel that where; the re is an increase of produce they will get their fair share of it, to increase the prosperity of the coun- try. Where the charges have gone up and the wages charges on the State have gone up—we have a debt of eight thousand millions—and the wages have gone up, because the cost of living had gone up, they must be met somehow or other, either by saving or by in- creased productivity. I should like I some sort of dead level of talk, if you will allow the. phrase, between work- men and employers upon that topic. I MUTUAL FRANKNESS NEEDED. I "Let each of them tell the other ex- actly what their views are and do not take offence- so readily. It is better that the employers should speak out quite plainly what is in their minds. I am perfectly certain that no work- man would resent that, and I am equally certain that if the workmen say exactly what is in their minds, the employers would rather hear it. (Hear, hear). Begin by having a quite open talk on the subject, and then see if you cannot possibly de- vise some sort of understanding. It is confidence that you want to breed. If you get that confidence which will make the- workmen feel that if there is an increased productivity, the em- ployers will not go round the next Quarter Day, or perhaps the next year, and say, 'Ha! Here you are, earning too much, and, therefore, down goes the level of your wages.' That has done more harm in the past than anybody can imagine, and it takes a longer time to get the suspic- ion which is bred by that kind of con- duct out of the minds of the work- men. You must get it out by estab- lishing the complete understanding that will make it possible for the workmen to feel that the greater the productivity of the country the. greater will their prosperity be, as well as the prosperity of the employers. That I consider to be of the very greatest importance. PATH TO PROSPERITY. "The world has run short of things, and there will be great demands made trpon the people of this country. There is a fear in the minds of the work- men that if there is increased pro- ductivity. somehow or other that will lead to unemployment. You must, therefore, settle the problem of un- employment as a basis of any demand or of any arrangement for increased products. But I do not think there is any fear of that. The countries outside have gone so completely to pieces that "I cannot seo any country except ours and America, with the possible exceptions of jJ'Jtpnn. which is to supply the world. So if we come together, and come together, quickly, I believe there is an era of great pros- perity before this land; but I am sure you will not get it until we establish better relations among ourselves. That s the first thin do. Having done that, and having made 'everybody feel that when prosperity comes, everybody will have a share in it, then I am certain you will get this land into such a condition of happiness and con- tentment as it has never seen. It will be the model to the whole world, and it will be said, once and for all, 'Thank God that* he planted this island in the sea to lead the world along the path of civilisation.' (Cheers. )

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