products. The former group have for the last two years been selling blooms and billets in this country at lower prices than they have sold to the second group. This system has rendered it extremely difficult for the second group to sell in the German home market, and has made it almost impossible for them to cultivate foreign markets, because they could only do so at a loss, which their possible profits would not enable them to recoup. There are, therefore, obvious limitations even to the German invasion of British markets; and unless conditions radically change in Germany itself, I hardly think that the severe competition from which we have suffered in the last two years may be expected to continue its severity. This, however, is little more than a pious opinion, and is not put forward as a prophecy. The iron trade is full of surprises; and no man's opinion as to its future can be much more than a mere conjecture.

Much has been said at different times as to the possible extension of the Trust system-using that term in its evident or generic sense-in our own country. It does not seem to me that here the system could be applied with advantage to producers, and certainly not with any possible gain to consumers. The main reason for this fact is that while in protectionist countries prices may be regulated by such combinations within tolerably wide limits, here prices must be largely determined by the behaviour of the foreigner. An arrangement made to-day to sell at a certain regulated price may be completely upset to-morrow by the action of an outside country. Although the output of iron and steel throughout the world is now so enormous, the iron market is so sensitive that an offer of 25,000 or 50,000 tons of pigiron or steel in markets like Glasgow and Middlesbro', at 5s. or 10s. below current prices, would completely demoralize the market, and almost create a panic. It

is difficult under these circumstances to see what benefit the extension of the Trust system in this country could be expected to confer in the way of keeping markets from falling to pieces. It might, no doubt, under certain conditions, aid in the cheapening of production by reducing standing charges, and enabling manufacturers to keep their most economical plants fully employed while closing those that were unprofitable. But Disraeli once truly remarked that England does not love coalitions, and unless I greatly err, we do not love them any more in the manufacturing than in the political sphere.

I have now brought my lecture to a close. I feel that I have only touched the fringe of a great subject. There are many single aspects of the iron industry of this country that would alone require very much more time and space to do them the barest meed of justice than I have been able to devote to the whole matter. But I have tried in what I have submitted to lead your minds to the consideration of questions that are deserving of further thought, and with respect to which I venture to believe further attention is likely to be rewarded by valuable insight into industrial conditions and economic laws, which, applied in everyday practice, should lead to fruitful results. I have been compelled by the exigencies of time to leave many subjects untouched that have a most intimate, nay, even a fundamental, bearing on the prosperity of the iron industry. Of such are the great questions of railroad transportation, to which this Faculty should devote all the attention it possibly can, seeing that it underlies the whole superstructure of successful manufacture; that of piece-work; that of apprentice labour; and that of sliding scales as applied to raw materials, and as applied also to railway rates and charges, and to labour. The large subject of the fields of iron ore available for the British iron

industry in Spain, Sweden, Norway, and other countries, I have only barely glanced at. The technology of the trade I have left entirely untouched. If such lectures, or their equivalents, should be proceeded with in the future, it would, no doubt, be worth consideration how far these and kindred subjects should be embraced within their scope. Let me conclude with an expression of firm belief that whatever clouds may appear to my lower over the British iron industry either now or in the future, there never will come a time when our great natural advantages can fail to count for much in our favour. Nor can I believe that we are ever likely to see the day when the qualities of inventiveness, energy, enterprise, and capacity for seizing opportunities, which have made England great, will not, if continued and adapted to modern conditions, keep us well to the front as a manufacturing nation, and not least so among the nations that manufacture iron and steel. Many of the conditions to which I have referred to-night, apparently so adverse at present, are also so artificial that they may at any time disappear. This should be an encouragement to us to do our utmost, even in the face of what may appear to be overwhelming odds, and not to weary. in well-doing, believing that in due time we shall reap our reward.

THE MIDLAND IRON AND STEEL

WAGES BOARD

Daniel Jones

My task to-night is simply to lay before you the inner working of the Midland Iron and Steel Wages Board, upon the ground that amidst all the labour troubles for the last thirty years our methods of treating the relations of employers and their operatives has proved successful, not a single strike having occurred during that time. The public read in the newspapers accounts given by each side of the contending parties in a strike, and lament over the warfare, but few go thoughtfully into the subject and treat it as a study. Professor Ashley informs me that there are present to-night a number of young students as well as the public.

This is perhaps the first lecture which has been addressed to young students by way of instruction on the subject of Conciliation and Arbitration, and they will ask why they should be addressed on such a subject. The answer is that those who are going through a course of training under the Faculty of Commerce in this University of Birmingham, including a technical education, will probably sooner or later have to deal with working men, and then will be brought into contact with one of the most important problems of the day— "The Labour Question," as it is called.

We want their minds to be habituated to a train of thought on the line of conduct towards, and treatment of, those who will be acting as working men under their direction. This will lead them, when the time comes, to be prepared for dealing with this "Labour Question," and their relation to the working classes as their employers or overseers, in the way most approved of in this country as the result of some thirty years of experience. Without some preparation and knowledge of the subject they cannot expect to assume such positions without falling into error, and will have discovered their mistakes only after mischief has been done.

The adoption in most of the trades in the country of the principles of Conciliation and Arbitration, in one form or another, shows a concensus of opinion that it is the right and the best method of adjusting the relations of Capital and Labour. You will find a list of Conciliation and Arbitration Boards and Joint Committees in the "Directory of Industrial Associations in the United Kingdom," issued by the Labour Department of the Board of Trade.

The history of Labour is far too lengthy a subject to treat of here. It is sufficient to know that workmen engaged in similar employments, and aggregated together in the towns, as they mostly were in the Middle Ages, formed societies for mutual help and protection. We can trace them back as far as the thirteenth century. When the invention of the steam engine and the construction of railways and canals enabled us to develop our mines and manufactures, huge populations of working men sprang up in various centres, and these became more or less subject to organization. These organizations, which developed into the modern form of Trades Unions, necessitated the adoption of some reasonable way of settling, not only rates of wages, but every other matter