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 facilities
 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 sympathy
 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 position
 should enable him to see that the workers’ case is adequately presented,
 and he can act as their advocate when he is convinced that remedial
 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 mashinery
 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 - independent
 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 disputes
 demands some degree of organisation in the industrv. In the larger