The most important hope which may be legitimately entertained from the experience of the German Economic Council is that such a body would supply an element of sustained research, thought and formulation of policy. It would be an almost limitless well-spring of suggestion, more sympathetic in its composition than a deputation, more public than the lonely thinker, more continuous, pressing and representative than a Royal Commission, more in touch with the vital elements of industry and society than political parties, less suspect than the creations of the "lobby,” more sedate and objective in its deliberations and less given to sudden fevers of partisanship than the political assembly. The House of Commons as a rule-making body must be unified. But though the source of authority should be unified, the net of knowledge is best drawn as wide as possible, so that the provision for the making of rules may come from the integration of all the sources that are affected by their publication. We have seen in Part I. of this study that in the modern State the integration of such sources is haphazard. It is the experience of the German Economic Council that such an institution ensures the presence of all persons affected. For a century, already, short of a decade,1 the House of Commons has toiled with the work necessary to the age it entered upon with the Great Reform Bill. In the course of some thirty Committees on Procedure and with continual reform of its rules it has attempted to compass its new purposes. Yet like Sisyphus it has watched the load roll down the mountain-side in spite of its efforts. It has accomplished by these efforts little more than the curtailment of discussion, and certainly never the increase of thought and creativeness. Must it still proceed, like an abandoned windmill, to let its 1 The present author has in preparation a book on The Relief of Parliament, in which problems of complete reform of the House of Commons in relation to the congestion of business will be dealt with. sails whirl to the gusts of opinion, with no substance of grist? A recent inquiry into the machinery of government has dwelt upon the lack of creative effort in our institutions. Turning next to the formulation of policy," it says, "we have come to the conclusion, after surveying what came before us, that in the sphere of civil government the duty of investigation and thought, as preliminary to action, might with great advantage be more definitely recognised. It appears to us that adequate provision has not been made in the past for the organised acquisition of facts and information, and for the systematic application of thought, as preliminary to the settlement of policy and its subsequent administration." 1 Such a provision of thought-organisation seems in any prophetic view of the course of State life the first necessity of peaceful progress. Problems are clearly visible 2 which exhibit all the portents of dissensions and violence in the State. Good sense can stay such conflict, and good sense and communal sense have been promoted in the German Economic Council. Nor has its experience extinguished the hope of further and greater services. 1 Report of the Machinery of Government Committee, col. 9230, 1918, pp. 6 and 7, and 22-35. 2 See Chapter II. p. 20 et seq. APPENDIX I REPORT OF THE PROVISIONAL JOINT COMMITTEE PRESENTED TO MEETING OF INDUSTRIAL CONFEREnce, APRIL 4, 1919. Cmd. 139 (1) National Industrial Council (p. 15). (a) A permanent National Industrial Council should be established to consider and advise the Government on national industrial questions. (b) It should consist of 400 members, 200 elected by employers' organisations, and 200 by trade unions. (c) The Minister of Labour should be President of the Council. (d) There should be a Standing Committee of the Council numbering 50 members, and consisting of 25 members elected by and from the employers' representatives, and 25 by and from the trade union representatives, on the Council." (2) APPENDIX Provisional Scheme for Trade Union Representation on the National Industrial Council. Schedule A Number of representatives allotted to each group: Group 1. Mining and quarrying 2. Railways 23 17 15 7 21 8 The reader is referred to the Report, Appendix, p. 17 et seq. for other information on detailed representation, method of election, etc. APPENDIX II THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CENTRAL INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCE OF THE INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE EMPLOYERS AND Workers of GERMANY, OF THE 12TH DECEMBER 19191 Permeated with the recognition and responsibility that the reconstruction of our economic system requires the combination of all industrial and intellectual forces and all-round co-operation with a single aim, the organisations of industrial and trade employers and workers unite in a Central Industrial Alliance. I The aim of the Central Industrial Alliance is the common solution of all economic-political and sociopolitical questions concerning the industry and trade of Germany, as well as all legislative and administrative affairs touching the same. 2 The organs of the Central Industrial Alliance are: The Central Committee. The Central Industrial Alliance is composed of the Federal Industrial Alliances of the branches of Industry and Trade as well as the groups into which the latter fall. 1 Translation of text from Otto Leibrock, Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Leipzig, 1920), P. 150 et seq. |