The Theory and Policy of Labour Protection Part 14

In the first place let us construct in our own minds a picture of the new form of organisation proposed in the Auer Motion.

In the place of Art. IX. in the existing Imp. Ind. Code, a new Chap. IX.

would have to be inserted, dealing with "an Imperial Labour Board, District Labour Boards, Labour Chambers, and Labour Courts of Administration" (---- 131-143).

1. _The Imperial Labour Board and the Imperial Labour Parliament._

_The Imperial Labour Board._ Its organisation would be determined by special Imperial legislation. Probably equal representation of cla.s.ses is intended in this Central Bureau, which would act together with the hitherto essentially bureaucratic Imperial Insurance Board. Its duties would consist: first, in supervising so far as possible, the whole system of Labour Protection as demanded in the Auer Bill (---- 105-125); further, in affording protection against the compet.i.tion of penal labour; finally, "in enforcing such measures and conducting such enquiries as may be necessary to the well-being of the whole body of wage-earners, including apprentices, in any kind of industry." Its duties would therefore extend far beyond the limits of Labour Protection in the strict sense, and it would be a general Central Bureau of aids to Labour, in which the Imperial Insurance Board would soon become incorporated.

_The Labour Parliament_ (Diet of Labour Chambers). I take leave thus to designate the representative central organ proposed (although of course it is not brought forward in these terms in the heading of the new Chap.

IX. of the Auer Bill) since it is clear that the Imperial Labour Board is practically only intended to be the executive organ of this democratic industrial Council of the nation. Sections 140-142 of the Auer Motion require that: -- 140 "It shall be the duty of the Imperial Labour Board to summon once a year representatives from the collective Labour Chambers to a general deliberation on industrial interests. To this General Council each Labour Chamber shall send one delegate to represent the employers, and one the body of wage-earners. The choice of the representatives shall be made by each cla.s.s separately. The chair shall be taken at the Council by a member of the Imperial Labour Board, but he and his colleagues shall have no right to vote. The Council shall determine its own standing orders and the orders of the day; the sittings to be public. -- 141. The members of the Labour Chambers shall receive daily pay and defrayment of travelling expenses. -- 142. The Imperial Government shall pay the costs of the arrangements enumerated in ---- 131-140; they shall be entered yearly in the imperial accounts."

Thus we should have a national Labour Parliament--formed from the district Labour Chambers--with equal representation of both cla.s.ses, receiving grants from the Imperial exchequer, undertaking the general supervision of industrial interests and acting as a check on the Imperial Labour Board. By the simple process of throwing overboard the nominees of the employers, this Labour Parliament might at any time become a pure parliament of labourers, or "People's Parliament," and the Imperial Labour Board might resolve itself into the central ministry of a purely "People's State."

Such a state of things would obviously be the realisation of the extreme Social Democratic order of State.

It must be admitted that no secret is made of this fact, nor yet of the _basis_ on which the whole edifice is raised.

(2) _Labour Boards and Labour Courts of Arbitration, Labour Chambers._

The basis of the edifice is formed by Labour Boards and Courts of Arbitration, on the one hand (_i.e._ for executive purposes), and Labour Chambers on the other (_i.e._, for purposes of regulation). We shall, as far as possible, give the explanation of the matter in the words of the motion.

_Labour Boards._ On this head the Auer Motion reads as follows: "-- 132_a_. Below the Imperial Labour Board come the Labour Boards which shall be appointed throughout the German Empire, in districts of not less than 200,000, nor more than 400,000 inhabitants, at the latest by Oct. 1, 1891. -- 133. The Labour Board shall consist of a Labour Councillor and at least two paid officers; it must pa.s.s its rulings and decisions in full sitting. The Imperial Labour Board shall select the labour councillor from two candidates nominated by the Labour Chamber.

The permanent paid officers, whose duty it is to a.s.sist the labour councillor in his task of supervision, shall be elected by the Labour Chamber, half from the employers, and half from the employed. In districts in which there are a considerable number of works employing chiefly female labour, some of the officials appointed shall be women.

The same rules with regard to invalid and superannuation pensions shall apply to the officers of the Labour Boards, as apply to all other imperial officials. -- 133_a_. The officers of the Imperial Labour Board, and the labour councillors or their paid a.s.sistants, shall have the right at any time to inspect all places of business (whether of State, munic.i.p.al, or private enterprise) and to make such regulations as may appear necessary for the life and health of the workers employed. In the exercise of such supervision they shall be empowered with all the official authority of the local police magistrates. In so far as the rules laid down are within the official authority of the supervising officers, the employers and their staff shall be bound to render unhesitating obedience. The employer or his representatives shall have a right of appeal to the District Labour Board, to be lodged within a week, against the orders and rulings of individual officials, and a right of appeal against the District Labour Board's decision, also within a week, to the Imperial Labour Board. The Labour Board shall be bound to inspect all the works within a district at least once a year.

The employers shall permit the official inspection to take place at any time when the work is being carried on, especially also at night. The inspecting officers shall be bound, except in cases of infringement of the law, to observe secrecy as to all information on the concerns of a business obtained by them in pursuit of their official duties. -- 133_b_.

The local police magistrates shall uphold the Labour Board in the exercise of its authority, and shall enforce obedience to its directions. -- 133_c_. The Labour Board shall organize all free labour intelligence within its district, and serve in fact as a central bureau for this purpose. It shall also be empowered to appoint branch bureaux with this object, in such places as may seem suitable, and if there is no industrial union to undertake the duties the local police magistrates shall undertake them. -- 133_d_. Every Labour Board shall publish a yearly report of its proceedings, copies of which shall be distributed gratuitously to the members of the Labour Chambers by the Imperial Labour Board and the Central District Courts. The report shall be submitted to the approval of the Labour Chamber before publication. The Imperial Labour Board shall draw up yearly, from the annual reports of the Labour Boards, a general report to be submitted to the _Bundesrath_ and the Reichstag. The reports of the District Labour Boards and the Imperial Labour Board shall be accessible to the public at cost price."

The Labour Board of a district of from 200,000 to 400,000 inhabitants would be in the first place a modern kind of industrial inspectorate with offices filled from both cla.s.ses--employers and employed--with a democratic system of election, and to which women would also be eligible. Even the presidency of this inspectorate would not be freely appointed by the government, which would have only the power of electing one out of two nominees of the Labour Chambers. The primary task of the board would take the form of Labour Protection, of centralization of labour intelligence, and of drawing up reports on matters concerning labour. The Labour Board is intended as the executive organ of the Labour Chambers, the parliamentary administration would therefore be general; even in reporting on industry the Labour Board would be subject to the approval of the Labour Chamber. It is evident that this Democratic organisation of courts, which would be powerless to act so long as both cla.s.ses obstructed each other, might easily at one stroke, by turning out the nominees of the employers, be changed and developed into purely democratic district courts for the general protection of labour and the control of production.

_Courts of Arbitration._ The Court of Arbitration as proposed by the Auer Motion, is, so to speak, the judicial twin brother of the Labour Board. According to -- 137-137_e_, the Court of Arbitration would be a court of the first instance, for the settlement of disputes between employers and workmen. It would be formed by each Labour Chamber out of its numbers, and would consist of equal numbers of employers and of workmen. The chair would be taken by the labour councillor or one of his paid a.s.sistants. Equal representation of both cla.s.ses would be required when p.r.o.nouncing decisions. None but relations, employes, and partners in the business, would be permitted to be present during the deliberations in support of the disagreeing parties. There would be right of appeal to the Labour Chamber. The members of this Court of Arbitration would (like those of the Labour Chamber) (-- 130_a_) receive daily pay and defrayment of travelling expenses. Such would evidently be the working out of this system of combined cla.s.s representation, of which, indeed, we already have an instance in the industrial courts of arbitration.

_Labour Chambers._ These would form the foundation stone of the edifice, and they deserve the special attention of all who wish to know how Social Democracy means to attain her ends. I give verbatim the clauses dealing with this: "-- 134. For the representation of the interests of employers and their workmen, as well as for the support of the Labour Boards in the exercise of their authority, there shall be appointed from Oct. 1, 1891, in every Labour Board district, a Labour Chamber, to consist of not less than 24, and not more than 36 members, according to the number of different firms established in the district. The number of members for the separate districts shall be determined by the Imperial Labour Board. The members of the Labour Chambers shall be elected, the one half by employers of full age from amongst their numbers, the other half by workers of full age from amongst their numbers. The election shall be made on the principle of direct, individual, ballot voting by both s.e.xes, a simple majority only to decide. Each cla.s.s shall elect its own representatives. The mandate of the members of the Labour Chamber shall last for two years, opening and closing in each case with the calendar year. Simultaneously with the election of the members of the Labour Chamber proxies to the number of one-half shall be appointed. The proxies shall be those candidates who receive the greatest number of votes next after the elected members. In the case of equal votes lots shall be drawn. The selection of the polling day, which must be either a Sunday or festival, shall rest with the Imperial Labour Board, which shall also lay down the rules of procedure for the election. Employers and workmen shall be equally represented on the election committees. The time appointed for taking the votes shall be fixed in such a manner that both day and night s.h.i.+fts may be able to go to the poll. -- 135. Besides fulfilling the functions a.s.signed to them in ---- 106_a_, 110 and 121, the Labour Chambers shall support the Labour Boards by advice and active help in all questions touching the industrial life of their district. It shall be their special duty to make enquiry into the carrying out of commercial and s.h.i.+pping contracts; into customs, taxes, duties, and into the rate of wage, price of provisions, rent, compet.i.tive relations, educational and industrial establishments, collections of models and patterns, condition of dwellings, and into the health and mortality of the working population. They shall bring before the courts all complaints as to the conditions of industrial life, and they shall give opinion on all measures and legal proposals affecting industrial life in their district. Finally, they shall be courts of appeal against the decisions of the Courts of Arbitration. -- 136. The president of the Labour Chamber shall be the labour councillor, or failing him, one of his paid officials. The president shall have no vote, except in cases in which the Labour Chamber is giving decision as a court of appeal against the decision of the Court of Arbitration. Equality of voting shall be counted as a negative. The president shall be bound to summon the Labour Chamber at least once a month, and also when required on the motion of at least one-third of the members of the Chamber. The Labour Chambers shall lay down their own working rules; their sittings shall be public."

According to -- 139 of the motion, the members of the Labour Chambers shall also be ent.i.tled to claim daily pay and defrayment of travelling expenses.

Such are the Labour Chambers according to the proposals of the Social Democrats in 1885 and 1890.

It is not without some astonishment that I note the tactical ingenuity displayed by the party even here. Everything that has anywhere appeared in literature, in popular representation, in judicial and administrative organisation, in the way of proposals for the centralisation and extension of labour intelligence, or of proposals for the representation of labour in Labour Protection, and in all agencies for the care of labour,--every scheme that has ever been put forward under different forms, either purely theoretic or practical, as, _e.g._, "Popular Industrial Councils," and "Industrial Courts of Arbitration"--is here used to make a part of a broad bridge, leading across to a "People's State." Nothing is lacking but the lowest planks, which could not, however, be dispensed with, a Local Labour Board and a Local Labour Chamber, as the sub-structure of the District Labour Boards and District Labour Chambers.

The leaders of Social Democracy in the German Reichstag maintain that they are willing to join hands with the representatives of the existing order in their schemes of organisation. We have, therefore, no right to treat their scheme as consciously revolutionary. But this hardly affects the question. The question is whether--setting aside altogether the originators of the plan--such an organisation as that described above might not in fact readily lend itself as a battering-ram to overthrow the existing order and realise the aim of Socialism, whether, in fact, it would not of necessity be so used. This question may well be answered in the affirmative without casting the slightest reproach at the present leaders of the party.

The regulating representative organs would have full and comprehensive authority in all questions of industry, social policy, and health, and in inspection of dwellings; and the executive organs, even up to the Imperial Labour Board, might be empowered by the mere alteration of a few sections of the Bill to exercise the same authority, subject to the consent of the majority in the National and District Chambers, and eventually in the Local Chambers.

If these representative and administrative bodies ever came into existence, they would slowly but surely oust, not only the whole existing organisation of Chambers of Commerce and Industrial Councils, but also the Reichstag itself, and the Imperial Government, as well as the local corporate bodies; they would tear down every part of the existing social edifice. By the combined action of the Social Democrats in the Reichstag with the increasingly democratic tendencies of the local bodies, all this might come to pa.s.s in a very short s.p.a.ce of time.

I do not forget that the organisation is to be based in the first instance on equal representation of cla.s.ses. On the first two, and eventually on the third, step of the judicial and representative edifice, as many representatives are given to capital as to labour. In so far the organisation is a hybrid of Capitalism and Social Democracy.

For the moment, and in the present stage, it is, for this very reason, of special value to the Social Democrats, as it supplies a method of completely crippling the forces opposed to them in the existing order.

For it will be sufficient in the day of fulfilment, _i.e._ when all is ripe for the intended change, to give one shake, so to speak, in order to burst open the half capitalistic chrysalis, and let the b.u.t.terfly of a Social Democratic "People's State" fly out.

The half capitalistic organisation would, I repeat, be of the greatest value at present, in the early preparatory work of the Social Democrats.

First, because the working cla.s.s would become practically and thoroughly accustomed to co-operation instead of to subordination as. .h.i.therto; this is the transition step which cannot be avoided, to the supremacy of the working cla.s.s over the employers' cla.s.s. Then, too, the proposed organisation would offer an excellent opportunity for pa.s.sing through the transition step by step, by the continued weakening of the capitalist order of society in all its joints. The struggle with capital would have the sanction and the organised force of legislation. It would receive legal organisation, and would even be legally enjoined. This legalised battle would proceed over the whole circuit of industrial activity, including trade and transport, and including also the state regulated portion of it.

In addition to this the organisation would be peculiarly fitted to cripple even the least objectionable bulwarks of capital, even the altogether unbia.s.sed and nonpartisan operation of the local and district, and probably even ultimately of the imperial courts.

The apparently equal coupling of the influence of both cla.s.ses would lead to the result that the cla.s.s which had the more energetic representatives and the slighter interest in the maintenance of the "working rules" would be able at any moment and at any point in the national industrial life, to bring everything to a deadlock. The labour councillor would be dependent on the Labour Chambers, and they in turn would be entirely dependent on the leaders of labour. By the provision that the president shall have no vote, and a tie in voting shall therefore count as a defeat, the workmen's electorate hold in their hands the power to obstruct at will any resolution, and especially to obstruct the issue of the working rules in any business, since the rules must be submitted to the approval of the Labour Chambers.

The function of "supporting the Labour Boards by advice and active help in all questions touching the industrial life of their district," might very easily, by virtue of the above provision, be so abused by the Labour Chambers as to deprive individual industrial inspectors of all possibility of just and independent action, and hence by degrees to entirely cripple and destroy the value of the inspectorate as a whole; there can, I think be no doubt that before very long these powers would intentionally be used for this purpose.

The action of a positive Social policy would be hopelessly crippled by an equally balanced cla.s.s representation, while at the same time the existing order of industrial life would be disturbed and shaken down to the very last and smallest branches of industry.

Nor would this be all, for such an organisation would secure fixed salaries for the staff of agitators in the Labour party, since the representatives would receive daily pay and defrayment of travelling expenses from the Imperial exchequer. Debates and discussions might be carried on without intermission, the pay continuing all the time, for each Labour Chamber would be convened, not only once a month, but also at any time at the request of one-third of the members of the Labour Chamber, therefore of two-thirds of the labour representatives in the chamber. By virtue of the provision which gives them unlimited right of intervention, pretexts for convening frequent meetings would never be wanting.

Hence it is evident that no more effectual machinery could be devised for the legal preparation for leading up the existing social order directly to the threshold of the "People's State." The attempt to convert the hybrid Capitalist-Socialist state to a pure Socialist state would be a perfectly simple matter, both in the Empire, the provinces, and the local districts, as soon as we had allowed Social Democracy one or two decades in which to turn the two-fold cla.s.s representation to their own ends. By a single successful revolutionary "_coup_" in the chief city of the Empire, or in the chief cities of several countries simultaneously, representation of capital in the Labour Courts might be thrown overboard, and the "People's State" would be ready; the parliament of a purely popular government would hold the field, and the present representation of the nation which includes all cla.s.ses and watches over the spiritual and material interests of the whole nation, might without difficulty be swept away from Empire, province, district and munic.i.p.ality.

The construction of a complete system of "collective" production would be easy, for it would find the framework ready to its hand, complete from base to summit, fully mapped out on the plan.

Perhaps the leaders themselves are not fully conscious of the lengths to which their proposed organisation may carry them. One can quite understand how from their standpoint they fail to see the end. They have pursued the path that seemed the most likely to lead to their goal of a radical change of the existing social order. The whole responsibility will rest with the parties in power, if they do more than hold out their little finger, which they have already done, to help Social Democracy along this path of organisation.

CHAPTER XII.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF PROTECTIVE ORGANISATION.

In spite of all that can be urged against them, however, we may gather much, not merely negative, but also positive, knowledge from the proposals of Social Democracy. An organisation which shall be equipped with full authority, which shall be independent, complete in all its parts, which shall prevail uniformly and equally over the whole nation; an organisation which shall avoid the disintegration of collective aids to labour, which shall encourage industrial representation and prevent the division of authority amongst many different courts: such is the root idea of the proposal, and this idea is just, however unacceptable may appear to us the form in which it is clothed in the Auer Motion.

Nothing is omitted in the Auer Motion except the a.s.signment of their various duties to the various branches of the territorial representative bodies, and the working out of an elementary local organisation. I shall therefore try to work out the idea into a legitimate and possible form of development. In order to do this I must distinguish between the organisation required for executive and for representative bodies.

As regards the executive organs, neither in Germany nor elsewhere is the industrial inspectorate at present furnished with a sufficient number of paid head-inspectors and sub-inspectors. Scarcely any of the sub-inspectors are drawn from the labouring cla.s.s except in the case of England. Industrial inspection in Germany has not yet attained uniform extension over the whole Empire. The inspectors of the different provinces, and the chief provincial inspectors of the whole Empire require to be brought into regular communication with each other and with a Central Bureau adapted for all forms of aid to labour, including Labour Protection--an organ which of course must not interfere with the imperial, const.i.tutional, and administrative independence of the States of the _Bund_. If the individual inspectors were everywhere carefully chosen, the a.s.sembling of all inspectors for deliberation with the Provincial and Imperial Central Bureaux of Labour Protection would in nowise r.e.t.a.r.d, but on the contrary would serve to promote the complete and equitable administration of Labour Protection and all forms of aid to labour. This is the really fruitful germ contained in the idea of an "Imperial Labour Board."

A Provincial Labour Board might effect much in the same direction. We are not without the beginnings of a uniform const.i.tution of this kind: England has an Inspector-General, Austria a Central Inspector; in Switzerland the inspectors hold regular conferences; in France a comprehensive scheme of inspectoral combination is projected.

The choice of persons as head and sub-inspectors, which is a matter of such great importance, might be subject to nomination by the united provincial inspectorate, coupled with instructions to direct particular attention to the selection of persons of practical experience, without social bias, well versed in knowledge of technical and hygienic matters, and suited to the special needs of the several posts.

But the mere development of the inspectorate would not be the only step in the progress of the organisation of Labour Protection. We must go much further than this. The combined interests of economy, simplicity, efficiency, and permanence of service, point to the necessity of relieving as far as possible the regular governmental courts of the Empire, of the province, and of the munic.i.p.ality, of the extra burden of judicial and police administration involved in special branches of Labour Protection, and in all other special forms of aid to labour. The same considerations involve the necessity of gradually developing a better organisation of a.s.sociated labour boards, an imperial board, and provincial, district, and munic.i.p.al boards. We should thus get rid of the present confusion of divided authority without entirely depriving Labour Protection, both individual and general, of the a.s.sistance of the ordinary administrative courts. This is the task that I have repeatedly insisted upon as imperatively requiring to be taken in hand in connexion with Labour Insurance. The Auer Motion attempts to meet this necessity.

Much also that is very just and very practical is contained in the idea of extending the sphere of operations of the Imperial Labour Board and of the District Boards so as to embrace not only Labour Protection but every form of aid to labour. Complaint is made that the organisation of Labour Insurance, in spite of all caution, has frequently proved a unpractical and costly piece of patchwork administration. Would it not then be more to the point, and would it not more easily fulfil the object of Labour Insurance and Labour Protection, and later on also of dwelling reform, inspection of work, etc., to create munic.i.p.al district and provincial boards, with a great Imperial Central Bureau at the head?

In order that each special branch of protection might receive proper attention, care would have to be taken in appointing to the offices of the collective organ, to insure the inclusion of the technical, juristic, police, hygienic, and statistic elements, and it would be necessary to group these elements into sections without destroying the unity of the service. There would be no lack of material, and it would not be difficult to secure a good, efficient, and economical working staff.

No less reasonable is the idea of a "guild" of the eldest in the trade, or of a factory committee for the several large works with representation of both cla.s.ses to appoint the district, provincial, and imperial labour councils. So far from being extreme in this respect, the Auer Motion is rather to be reproached with incompleteness, and a lack of provision for local Labour Councils and Labour Chambers, a point which we have already mentioned. But the representative bodies would have a significance extending far beyond the limits of Labour Protection--following the example of Switzerland the _von Berlepsch_ Bill admits factory labour-committees for dealing with matters concerning the factory working rules--they would be agencies for the care of labour, for the insurance of social peace, the protection of morality, the settlement of disputes and the maintenance of order in the factory, for the instruction and discipline of apprentices, for the control of the administration of protective legislation, for dealing with the wage question, in a word for softening the severe autocracy of the employers and their managers by the co-operation and advice of the workers. And in this case I have nothing further to add to what I have already said on the matter in a former article.

But the supporter of even the most comprehensive scheme of labour representation does not stand committed to any such system of parliamentary management of industry by democratic majority as is proposed in the Auer Motion. The appointment and the working of the Labour Councils and Labour Chambers seems to me to introduce quite another element into the scheme.

The regular, not merely the accidental and occasional, meeting of the inspectors with the body of employers and workers is a recognised practical necessity; a less bureaucratic system of industrial management is demanded on all sides. Regularly appointed ordinary and special meetings with the Labour Chambers would no doubt accomplish much. The inspector ought to be accessible to the expression of all wishes, advice, and complaints; but, on the other hand, he should not yield blind obedience to the rulings and representations of such organs. The industrial inspector must be, and must remain, an officer of the State, capable of acting independently of either cla.s.s, appointed by government; only under these circ.u.mstances can he perform the duties of his office with firmness and impartial justice; in his appointment, in his salary, and in the exercise of his official duties he should be furnished with every guarantee to insure the independence of his judgment. It is nowise incompatible with this that he should be open to receive representations, whether in the way of advice, information, or complaint. The more he lays himself open to such in the natural course of work, the more important will his duties and position become, both on his circuits and in his office. The right of appeal to higher courts can always be secured to the Labour Chambers in cases of complaint. But how should representative bodies of this kind be formed?

In answering this question care must be taken above all not to confound such public Labour Chambers as are suggested in the Auer proposals with voluntary joint committees of both cla.s.ses. Each of these representative organs requires its own special const.i.tution.