one at all accustomed to try and look at labour questions from the point
of view of labour will understand the men while heartily sympathising with
the Minister, who was determined to get "the goods" and has succeeded in
getting them. Here, in talking of "the men" I except that small
revolutionary element among them which has no country, and exists in all
countries. And I except, too, instances which certainly are to be found,
though rarely, of what one might call a purely mean and overreaching
temper on the part of workmen--taking advantage of the nation's need, as
some of the less responsible employers have no doubt, also, taken
advantage of it. But, in general, it seems to me, there has been an honest
struggle in the minds of thousands of workmen between what appears to them
the necessary protection of their standards of life--laboriously attained
through long effort--and the call of the war. And that the overwhelming
majority of the workmen concerned with munitions should have patriotically
and triumphantly decided this struggle as they have--under pressure, no
doubt, but under no such pressure as exists in a conscripted, still more
in an invaded, nation--may rank, I think, when all is said, with the
raising of our voluntary Armies as another striking chapter in the book of
_England's Effort_.

In this chapter, then, Dilution will always take a leading place.

What is Dilution?

It means, of course, that under the sharp analysis of necessity much
engineering work, generally reckoned as "skilled" work, and reserved to
"skilled" workmen, by a number of union regulations, is seen to be capable
of solution into various processes, some of which can be sorted out from
the others as within the capacity of the unskilled or semiskilled worker.
By so dividing them up, and using the superior labour with economy, only