THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 209 
and destitution for which the same public is subsequently called 
upon to make financial and administrative provision. This is an 
inevitable defect of a one-sided or consumers’ socialism. Nor 
is it likely to be remedied by any general perfunctory recognition 
of the duty of the public employer to observe standard conditions. 
For in most cases public employment will, by virtue of its mono- 
polistic character, contain features that have no precise analogy 
in the outside business world, so that some separate method of 
determining the application of standard conditions is necessary. 
Unless that method admits direct representation of the interests 
of the employees, there can be no sufficient security that these 
interests shall receive proper consideration. This is not a demand 
that the employees shall ‘interfere’ with the public management, 
or ‘dictate’ the terms of their employment. On the contrary, 
it is clear that the official managers must, in the ordinary course 
of business, secure the execution of their orders. But, consider- 
ing that their standpoint must always be biassed towards a 
special interpretation of the public interest in the sense of effi- 
ciency and economy of a particular output, this narrower public 
interest must be checked by reference to a wider public interest 
in which the human costs of production shall be represented. 
An accumulating weight of recent experience in various countries 
makes it evident that state-socialism must fail unless adequate 
provision is made for safeguarding the interest of particular 
groups of public employees. This safeguard cannot, of course, be 
given by any mere concession of the right of combination and 
of collective bargaining. For while collective bargaining may 
enable the employees to secure fair terms where they are dealing 
with competing private businesses, it cannot where the sole 
employer is the State or Municipality. The latter is technically 
able to impose its terms upon any group of workers who are 
specialised for the work it offers. Recognition of the Union, and 
an admission by the management of the right of union-officials 
to consultation and discussion of conditions of employment, do 
not really furnish any basis of settlement, though they may often 
ease a difficulty and remove misunderstanding. What is required 
is a statutory right of appeal to a public authority, outside of and 
independent of the particular department, competent to take that 
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