of a century. The first Committee of Inquiry set up in 
1916 to consider the position of the iron and steel industry 
after the War urged the necessity for a complete reorgan- 
sation of the industry from the point of obtaining its 
raw materials to the sale and distribution of its finished 
products. 
The Balfour Committee on Industry and Trade, while 
less definite so far as specific recommendations were con- 
cerned, and while recognising the financial aspect of the 
problem in an insecure home market, clearly indicated by 
zomparisons with other countries the lines of future de- 
velopment. 
The reporti of the Committee set up by the present 
Government has not had official publication, but sufficient 
s known through unofficial sources to make it clear that 
the unanimous conclusion was that national organisa- 
tion of the entire industry upon a regional basis, in com- 
bination with financial adjustments, were regarded as a 
fundamental condition of sound and progressive develop- 
ment. 
Organisation of the industry on a national footing, and 
for national purposes, was effected during the War by the 
State, but it is one thing to organise for war purposes 
and quite another to organise with the objective of devel- 
oping peaceful trade and. commerce. While the need is 
no Jess imperative the recognition of a common interest 
to secure the objective is lacking. 
It is true there have been certain crude attempts at 
what has been termed ‘rationalisation,’ but without any 
evidence of a proper conception of its meaning or of the 
objective to be attained. There have been amalgamations 
of financial interests without, in most cases, the necessary 
financial adjustments. Labour has been rationalised, but 
not financial commitments. 
The result has so far been to increase unemployment 
and to’ accentuate problems of national.importance. We 
recognise that in the process of adjusting an unorganised 
ndustry, displacement of labour must occur, but this 
would be taken into account and, as far as possible, pro- 
vided for in any conscious planning of the industry with 
the national interests in view. A grave defect of the pre- 
sent haphazard methods is that no regard appears to be 
paid to the waste arising from labour displacement, for 
which private enterprise, as such, is not concerned to make 
provision. Yet it is surely of some importance that in 
any well-conceived scheme of industrial reconstruction 
and development the skill, experience and general morale 
of the labour power of an industry should be as far as 
possible kept intact. 
In view of the much greater productivity of labour em- 
ployed in relation to modern technique and machinery, 
(13)