Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/742

702 committees actually draw up the rules, assisted by the staff of the industrial commission, after an exhaustive cooperative in- vestigation. In some cases, as, for instance, in the determination of the minimum wage, consultation with joint committees is made mandatory. These committees form, in fact, an inferior indus- trial legislature, composed of leaders and representatives of both interests, who are continually in session under state supervision and working on those details of administration which, after all, are the actual substance of such legislation as is enforced.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. John R. Commons and John B. Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation (1920); American Association for Labor Legislation, American Labor Legislation Review; U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, and Bulletins; Federal Board for Vocational Education, Annual Re- ports and Vocational Summary. (J. R. Co.) LABOUR MINISTRY AND DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR. One of the outward signs of the intensified governmental inter- est in labour has been the establishment in 1913 of a Depart- ment of Labor in the United States, and in 1917 of a Ministry of Labour in Great Britain.

UNITED KINGDOM. The demand for the creation in the United Kingdom of a separate Ministry of Labour had been since 1904 a stock subject of discussion at the annual Trade Union Congress, and resolutions in favour of it had been intro- duced in various years up to 1916. Meanwhile, the attention of employers had been principally directed to the advocacy of a Ministry of Commerce which was to be a development of the Board of Trade. Employers had not contemplated in general a separate ministry for the labour side of the commercial problem. The general policy of the Government had been to leave to each department of State that portion of the labour problem which naturally was associated with its main functions. In so far as there was any department which was primarily charged with labour problems, that department was the Home Office, as having charge of factory legislation, though the Board of Trade had also a considerable share of the responsibility for handling labour questions, and through its " Commercial, Labour and Statistical Department" (see 27.127) was being given continually larger association with them. Thus the Labour Department of the Board of Trade was made responsible in turn for the admin- istration of the Labour Exchanges Act (1908), the first Trade Boards Act (1909), and Part II. of the Insurance Act of 1911, which dealt with unemployment insurance; and this Depart- ment dealt with the work of conciliation in labour disputes until the establishment of the separate department of the Chief Industrial Commissioner in 1911. Other departments concerned were: the Local Government Board, as responsible for the administration of the poor law; the Board of Education; and the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, in so far as any labour questions affecting agriculture arose. Finally, there was the position of the State as a direct employer of labour both of clerical and semi-clerical labour in the Civil Service and the Post Office, and of industrial labour in Woolwich Arsenal and the dockyards. The general labour policy in this respect was under the financial control of the Treasury; the actual handling of the labour problems affecting the postal service was dealt with by the Post Office, those affecting Woolwich Arsenal and Enfield by the War Office, those affecting the dockyards by the Admiralty. The only general measure of coordination was given by the Fair Wages Advisory Committee, which considered from time to time what were in fact the fair wages in terms of the House of Com- mons resolution requiring that Government contractors should pay fair wages, and which instructed the contracting departments as to the wages that they should require their contractors to pay.

With the outbreak of the World War in 1914 labour problems immediately assumed a new importance, since the paramount question was the control of man-power. It was natural in these circumstances that resort should be had by the Government primarily to the Board of Trade, upon which the handling of labour problems had increasingly centred in the years immediately preceding the war. Thus it was to the Labour Exchanges Department of the Board of Trade that the Government looked

for the supply of labour for mobilization and for the grouping of labour which was required for the munitions programme. In the same way the Government looked to the Chief Industrial Commissioner for advice and guidance upon the policy to be adopted in respect of general labour problems such as trade disputes and the need for increasing production. But, as these problems assumed an ever-increasing importance, it began to be obvious that possible conflict, which might arise from separate policies carried out by the War Office, Admiralty and Board of Trade, might lead to grave consequences. More and more it was felt that some department, charged at any rate with the labour war problems, should be established, and effect was given to this view by the establishment of the Labour Department of the Ministry of Munitions in Aug. 1915- That department was in the first place largely staffed by officers lent by the Board of Trade, and from the outset discharged the dual function of war labour supply and regulation.

At the same time, it was laid down that the duty of holding the scales between the two sides in industry, i.e. the duties of conciliation and arbitration, must remain separate from the Ministry of Munitions, which was in itself an employing de- partment. Thus the arbitration tribunal, known as the Com- mittee on Production, which had grown out of the Chief Industrial Commissioner's Department, remained with the Board of Trade.

At first the Labour Department of the Ministry of Munitions had charge of labour problems affecting both the Admiralty and the War Office. But, even so, there were many labour problems of the first importance for which this department was not responsible. The control of the railways remained with the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, and similarly the control of mines with the Home Office. But the problems arising on mines and railways were of a general character affecting the whole labour situation. Moreover, while technically the Minis- try of Munitions had responsibility over the labour policy of the Admiralty, it was hardly to be expected that one department of State would find itself able to take instructions from another which, in labour matters, was in fact a competitor. In conse- quence, although the Ministry of Munitions had achieved a certain measure of centralization and coordination, it was in- creasingly felt that some central department, not itself directly an employer of labour, should be available for giving general advice to the Government.

The first attempt to secure this was the creation during 1916 of the Department of the Chief Labour Adviser to the Govern- ment. It was the intention that Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P., who was appointed to this post, should in a sense fulfil the func- tion of guiding the labour policy of all departments and advising the Cabinet generally on labour affairs. The difficulty, however, was that Mr. Henderson had no direct authority over the employing departments, and was not in direct relation with the Committee on Production, which remained attached to the Board of Trade. In the result, therefore, though Mr. Hender- son's advice was always available, the office of Chief Labour Adviser was not found to fulfil the requirements of the situation.

Ministry of Labour, 1917. One of the first steps of the first Lloyd George Government was to establish early in 1917 a new Ministry of Labour. It was constituted under the powers given by the New Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1916. The Act did not itself invest the Minister of Labour with any specific powers except that it provided that the labour functions of any other department of State could be transferred to him by Order in Council. The Ministry started its official existence with the responsibility for the Chief' Industrial Commissioner's Depart- ment, the administration of the Trade Boards Acts, and of the employment exchanges. Shortly afterwards there was added to these functions the responsibility for labour statistics. It happened, however, that simultaneously with the creation of the Ministry of Labour the Department of the Director-General of National Service also came into existence, and the question of the control of labour exchanges at once created complications. Every effort was made to bring the two Departments into the closest possible touch, but since the Admiralty and the Ministry