INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES. 335 simes of political ferment, such as the present, these tend to become frequent, and while they are fortunately ephemeral, they cause in the aggregate appreciable dislocation of industry. Political and Other Influences. At certain periods factors which were not economic had an im- portant influence on industrial strife. The worst period of such unrest 1920-21) coincided with the occurrence of intensive political agitation. A few strikes were organised by political leaders ; more frequently op- ponents of Government wused their influence to intensify disputes which were economic in origin. Recently other influences have appeared ; the spread of communism has affected the workers in certain places, parti- cularly Bombay, and in the big mill strikes which have occurred there luring the last few years communist leaders and organisations have played 3 leading part. Another new development has emerged in at least two recent strikes of importance in which some of those acting with the workers were also interested in the influence of the strike upon commodi- ties and share markets. But although workers may have been influenced oy persons with nationalist, communist or commercial ends to serve, we selieve that there has rarely been a strike of any importance which has not been due, entirely or largely, to economic reasons. Experience of Works Committees. . We turn now to a brief review of the various methods adopted both to prevent the occurrence of disputes and to resolve them when they arose. The industrial unrest which followed the close of the war led to an examination of methods adopted in other countries, and especially in Great Britain. Among these, the institution of works committees received attention at an early stage. In 1920 the Government of India, while starting joint committees in their presses, directed public attention 50 the possibilities of the idea and about the same time committees were formed by Messrs. Tata at Jamshedpur and in at least one of the larger callways. A committee appointed in Bengal in 1921, at the instance of the Legislative Council, to consider the causes of and remedies for indus- ‘rial unrest, gave warm support to the idea. At the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in Madras, where 9,000 workers are employed and where the proportion of permanent labour is large, a works committee was formed in 1922 under the name of the Workpeople’s Welfare Committee. It was started by the management with the object of securing closer contact with the workers by the discussion and settlement of matters affecting their interests. The constitution of the sommittee is kept as elastic as possible and is subject to enlargement as sircumstances demand. In addition to the President and Vice-Presi- dent, 1t is now composed of 26 representatives of the workers and ten of She management. The former are elected annually by a secret ballot of workers with more than one year’s service in the different departments. The welfare superintendent is ex-officio secretary and two labour representatives are elected to serve as assistant secretaries. The proceed- ngs of the meetings, which are held fortnightly, are printed in Tamil and