In the second place, the war has profoundly altered the conditions of
the industrial problem. Since 1914 the community itself has become by
far the greatest employer of labor. It has assumed control for the
duration of the war over a great number of the larger private
undertakings, it has limited profits by imposing an 80 per cent. excess
profits tax, and it has intervened to prevent profiteering in the
essential requirements of the nation. Further, the regulation of the
trade unions have been suspended for the duration of the war, industry
has been diluted throughout, new methods and new industries have been
introduced, labor-saving machinery has been everywhere installed, and
the speed of production and the number and skill of workers has greatly
risen. The nation today is far better organized and far more productive
than it has ever been before.
With the advent of the new Government at the end of 1916 a Ministry of
Labor was created to deal with labor questions. It is still early to
speak of the results of its work, but an important step toward the
creation of better conditions in the industrial world has been taken in
the adoption by the Government of the report of the Whitley Committee,
which recommended the development of machinery in the shape of
industrial councils, representatives of employers and employed
throughout the country, whereby it should be possible to solve the
difficulties which will arise by the process of peaceful conference and
negotiation in place of the methods of industrial war. Despite all
difficulties and the recent increase in industrial unrest, it is
probably true to say that as the result of the war there is now a better
understanding both by capital and labor of their mutual problems than at
any previous time.