"Another absurdity of the federation business is shown by what happened to a certain firm in our own industry. There was some trouble in the gramophone box-making industry and a strike was called. It happened that the joiners of a cable firm who made the drums for winding the cables belonged to the same union as the box-makers and they were forced to join in the strike, thus paralysing an industry that had nothing whatever to do with gramophones.
"You can solve labour problems by the two sides getting together round a table and thoroughly thrashing out something definite, if the organizations are not too unwieldy, if each party is credited by the other with some intelligence and if there is a genuine readiness to concede something if proved to be necessary and for the common good. I cannot see any other way. I am not altogether in favour of profit sharing or having some of the men on the board of directors, and I don't think sensible Labour people want it themselves. Certainly I have never met any responsible trade union official who knew his job who wanted this. If a man could keep his shares for good there might be more in it, but there is always a saving clause that he shall surrender them if he leaves the firm and that makes a difference. As for piece work, that may be favoured by many individuals, but, not by organizations. Also, it is not really satisfactory, because, if you get special work, of a type you have not done before, it is beyond any man's power to say definitely what it is worth."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.