INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES, 843 
or used as rivals to its influence. It isidle to expect that a committee, 
intended to forestall and prevent effective organisation on the part of 
workers, will secure their confidence to any large extent. We are anxious 
that prejudice shall not prevent trade unions from securing the faci- 
lities necessary for their development, but it will be generally recognised 
that the employer has the right of exercising his own judgment as to the 
bona fides of a particular trade union. The workers’ representatives 
should have facilities for separate as well as for joint meetings; such 
meetings should ordinarily count as working time. The range of 
subjects should be as wide as possible, Finally, and most important 
of all, the principal representative of the management must be in sym- 
pathy with the idea and determined to do his best to make the committee 
a success. A manager (or other officer) with the will and the ability to 
appreciate the workers’ point of view is the biggest asset a committee 
san have.. Where a suitable labour officer has been secured, he will 
naturally play a large part in the working of the committee. His posi- 
tion should enable him to see that the workers’ case is adequately pre- 
sented, and he can act as their advocate when he is convinced that reme- 
dial measures are required. It is preferable that he should not act as 
the spokesman of the employers on the committee; this duty is best 
discharged by the manager or some other officer. 
Value of Internal Settlement. 
We come now to the question of the settlement of disputes. 
Here we would emphasise the primary importance of maintaining ma- 
shinery for settlement within an industry. Public attention in India 
has naturally been concentrated on securing external machinery for 
settling disputes, 7.e., some authority either entirely or partly - independ- 
ent of the industry concerned. Such authorities can be of great value 
at times, but they cannot take the place of machinery established within 
an industry to deal with disputes as they arise. The external 
tribunal can seldom be invoked except at a comparatively late stage 
of a dispute, 7.e., when a strike has broken out or is imminent. 
By this time the dispute has generally attained its greatest dimensions, 
the parties have taken up positions from which it is difficult to recede, 
the spirit of compromise has disappeared, and an element of bitterness 
and exasperation has arisen which makes settlement difficult. Further, 
she external tribunal has to acquire its knowledge of conditions and at 
best this must be partial ; those within the industry start with a better 
appreciation of the basic facts than any external authority can acquire. 
Finally, the task of conciliation, to be fully effective, must continue after 
2, dispute has ended, and the work of an external authority cannot cover 
this stage. In this connection we are constrained to observe that unrest 
has been aggravated in more than one centre by the tendency to patch up 
% truce and secure a return to work without a permanent settlement of 
he bigger differences which have separated the parties. 
Organisation of Joint Machinery. 
The establishment of joint machinery for the settlement of dis- 
putes demands some degree of organisation in the industrv. In the larger