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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0444.PDF
so far as our recollection serves, is unique in the history of newspaper association with charitable effort by sending to the Times an autograph letter expressing his satisfaction and congratulations on the success of the Fund. Certain it is that if ever a newspaper has deserved such an honour it is the Times, for its organisation, immediately on the outbreak of war, of the Fund which has done so much to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded, the sick and the prisoners in the hands of a brutal and debased enemy. The Fund was opened as a result of an appeal to the Times by the late Lord Rothschild, who was then chairman of the British Red Cross Society, and within a month over a quarter of a million pounds had been collected. By February 20th., 1915, the Fund had passed the million mark. The second million was in hand early in November of the same year, and the third before the end of December. Then the rate of subscription fell off slightly, for the fourth milestone was not passed until the end of June, 1916, but by November 15th the sum collected amounted to £5,082,309. Since then the milestones have been passed at the following rate : the sixth in January, 1917 ; the seventh in June ; the eighth in November; the ninth in January of this year ; and now the tenth in April. Truly a wonderful record, as creditable to the Times which inaugurated the Fund as to the willing subscribers who have provided such huge sums of money for the allevia- tion of the sufferings of those broken in the war. • • • We begin this week the publication of Trade a series of articles on the subject of PandathefrS " Trade Parliaments and their Work," WorlT.ir by Mr. Ernest J. P. Benn, which we believe will be found of the utmost interest and use to all who have given the manifold problems of industrial reconstruction after the war more than a passing thought. As to the term " Trade Parliament," this is simply another name for the Standing Joint Industrial Councils recommended by the Report of the Whitley Commission, and there- fore needs no further explanation at the moment. The principal reason by which we have been actuated in the publication of this series is the amount of misconception which undoubtedly exists as ko the conditions which will exist immediately after the con- clusion of peace. There are many, and among them men who are not by any means unthinking, indi- viduals, who believe that we shall more or less gradually revert to the systems and conditions of trade and in- dustry which subsisted before the war. The reason for this, we believe, is that the whole subject is so huge, so complex, that the average man, who has many things weighing on his mind in the immediate present, has not the leisure to think matters out for himself, and therefore, finding himself as it were up against a blank wall falls into the habit of believing • that the future will probably take care of itself—that relief from present disabilities and conditions will be largely automatic. That will not be so. As the author of the series points out in his introductory article, industry will be faced with a revolution on a scale such as has never been experienced, or there must be a frank acknowledgment on the part of employers and employed that it will be carried on in the future, under different conditions and ideas to those governing it in the past. Wages and profits, which have been regarded as the only things that APRIL 25, 1918. matter, must be put in their proper places, and each industry must recognise that it is a part of the national organism—that it is a branch of national service in which labour, capital, management and all parties must join together in a common interest. We do not intend to detract from the interest of the series by following the author through all his postulates and the arguments adduced in their justification. The former are reasonable and the latter entirely sound, while the whole of the articles constitute an exceedingly valuable addition to what may be called the literature of post-bellum recon- struction. We cannot, however, refrain from quoting the concluding paragraph of the series, in which the writer says: " The betterment and development of our trade for the benefit of all engaged in it and for the nation as a whole; development, trade by trade, one trade at a time, the trade being the unit ; each trade as a branch of national service ; each trade as a vital part of the social organism ; the abolition of jealousy and secrecy and all that is born of ignorance and small-mindedness; production as the source of all prosperity ; waste of material, or method, or of goods, or of effort, as a crime against the community. When these ideas begin to be generally understood and applied we shall all be able to afford to smile at the old days when we squabbled for the wages and profits which were insignificant beside what is thus made possible. There is far more for everybody in each of our trades than has ever been got out of them, and if Labour and Capital will join hands in this new voyage of discovery the prospects of the future are indeed bright." ....... ''--- ••"•••*• Although we deplore to the full the The necessity which has lost the services ReSaf"to0118 t0 th.e nation of. tw0 officers so dis" Air tinguished in their records as Generals Ministry. Sir David Henderson and Sir Hugh Trenchard, we do not intend to fall into the prevalent error of passing judgment in default of the facts which lie behind these resigna-^ tions. Clearly, Lord Rothermere has come to cross- purposes with certain of the most highly-placed of his staff, with the result that an impossible position arose which could only be solved by the retirement from active work of the Minister himself or of his subordinates who disagreed with his policy. Until the real facts are disclosed, that is all anyone outside the principal actors in the case is able to assert, and that scant knowledge is certainly not enough to enable us to judge of the merits of the dispute. There is .this to be said, however. Lord Rothermere, since he became Secretary of State for Air, has unquestionably succeeded in carrying out reforms of capital importance, and under his administration the Air Ministry has very greatly increased its effi- ciency of working. Even so, there are many reforms still to be carried out before the ideal has been achieved, and not the least of these is that connected with the huge staff which has been built up under the dual control of the Admiralty and the War Office. We are not certain that a very great deal of blame is due to anyone for what is now seen to be an undue inflation of the ineffective staff of the flying service. When a great service has, during war time, to be created from the tiniest of nuclei, as we have had to improvise the R.A.F., the first essential is to get things done. Expense and the duplication of effort 442
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