National Council also needs to have specific work to do. I would be
prepared to see transferred to it many of the functions of the Ministry
of Labour, or rather that it should be made obligatory for the Minister
of Labour to consult this Council on such questions as whether it should
hold a compulsory inquiry into an industrial dispute. I would also
throw upon it the duty of advising Parliament exactly how my proposals
as to publicity are to be carried out, and would give it responsibility
for the Ministry of Labour index figures of the cost of living upon
which so many industrial agreements depend. I believe if we could set
out a series of specific functions to give the plan vitality, in
addition to the more nebulous duty of advising the Government on
industrial questions, we should have created an important device for
promoting the mutual confidence of which I have spoken.

The suggestions I have made are perhaps not very new, but they seem to
me to be in the natural line of evolution of Liberal traditions. Above
all, if they are accepted they should be pursued unflinchingly and
persevered with, not as a concession to this or that section which may
happen to be strong at the moment, but as a corporate policy, which aims
at combining the interests of us all in securing increased national
wealth with justice to the component classes of the commonwealth.




THE REGULATION OF WAGES

BY PROFESSOR L.T. HOBHOUSE

Professor of Sociology, London University.