THE GUILD TO-DAY?

Not a Medieval Conception Dressed Up
Modern Industry Is Feeling Its Way Towards It
THE success of any movement must depend to some extent on the skill shown in relating it to tendencies already manifested in public life. If the Guild System was the medieval anachronism unrelated to the modern world and its needs, which some suppose it is, the task we have set ouaselves in these papers would be . hopeless. At such a critical time as that through which we are living no one is going to be attracted by proposals which offer nothing but the pleasure of dressing up in the moth-eaten garments of a picturesque but remote age. As the sailor waits upon the tides and the farmer adapts his activities to the seasons, so must the expounder of social ideals take advantage of anything which gives him a point of contact with sbe Prevailing mood.
Such a policy is especially necessary in this country. Talk to the average Britisher of revutution and you at once antagonise him, but present the same idea in terms of social evolution and he will listen. There is no need to stir up opposition by stressing the novelty of your proposals. Far better, if you can legitimately do so, show that what you are suggesting fulfils " the law and the prophets" as these are conceived by our genera tion. The historically minded who might be attracted by the prospect of recovering an institution of the Middle Ages are few. The modern man has no respect for tradition. He wants to clear the ground for an entirely new beginning. What he wants to know in this connection is ' whether the guilds will help hitin to solve the problem of reorganising contemporary industry.
• INDUSTRIAL UNREST FEW will deny that this problem exists. The urgent need for securing the maximum efficiency in war-production has revealed the defects of the system formerly in operation. The changes which have been already made are an indication of the drastic revision in our methods which was felt to be necessary. But these changes are not regarded as sufficient, and in certain quarters there is a loud call for still further adaptations which cannot be disregarded.
The war. itself has forced upon us the need for a change in the motive of industry, One of the complaints most frequently voiced is that both employers and employees are still under the influence of the discarded system which gave prime consideration to the increase respectively of profits and wages. Owing to this, it is said, both parties are guilty of adopting methods adverse to the national interest. Even under a system which puts that interest iirst. the men:al habits begotten in former days continue. And it is this, it is alleged, which is affecting, in both a quantitative and qualitative sense, the production of supplies.
Combined with this greater emphasis on service rather than gain, we observe an increasing disposition to dwell on the personal factor in industry. It is not a revolutionary pamphlet but a Government papelwhich stated that " at all points can be seen the importance of appreciating that industry is run by human beings—not mechanical units." It is significant that there should have been issued a nutky Report (frequently referred to in these papers) concerned solely with the human factor in inde.try An article by Tom Harrison in the Vew Statesman sums up the main contention of this Report when it says: " Indust's/ seems to need a New Order from within. Employers might well reconsider. even in their own interests, the whole theory on which industry has worked for years, the theory that production consists of machines, operated by hands, and that what these hands do with their minds or when they are not needed by the machines is not managements business."
The time therefore would seem to be ripe for appealing on behalf of a system which claims to satisfy requirements on both these points.
THE SHOP STEWARDS' MOVEMENT THERE has been a good deal of discussion A among those who favoured a Guild System as to whether it would be possible so to adapt Trade Unions that they might develop on guild
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lines. The question is being answered n a practical way by the growth of a movement among the workers which aims at self-government, and it is in the relations of this movement to the Trade Unions that we can best acquire the knowledge which would enable us to decide the matter. The present situation has been well put in A Letter to a Shop Steward, by a writer who signs himself Guild Socialist," published by the Fabian Society. " There are still too many instances," says this writer, "in which the shop stewards, even when they are active, are not in practice fully recognised as the spokesmen of the whole factory, or as the exponents of Trade Union policy in workshop affairs. A part of this weakness is the consequence of a failure of the Trade Unions. to take full advantage of their chanees of organising the new workers brought into the factories during the war; and a part is due to the inadequacy of the recognition accorded to the shop stewards by the Trade Unions. There is an unfortunate hesitancy among official Trade Union leaders to make the most of the shop stewards' movement, because of fear that the growth of its influence may mean a challenge to the official leadership. There is a fear that workshop movements may be dominated by 'Communists,' and be used to stir up sevolt against Trade Union 'discipline '."
Whatever be the future relations of this movement to the Unions, there can be no doubt as to
its significance. It marks a new stage in the development of industry and obviously presents a line of approach for those who would advocate the full guild idea as conceived by the Popes. There is indeed a great deal in the pamphlet quoied and in others of the series with which the Catholic guildsman would find himself in hearty agreement.
The main difficulty lies in the fact that the Workshop Committees directed by the Shop Stewards are largely governed by the spirit of the class-war and are being used at the present day for the promulgation of Communist doctnne and the distribution of Communist literature. If this could be overcome, the possibilities of the movement would be great.
THE CORPORATIVE SYSTEM TN the Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, Pius XI A referred to a " special and corporative organisation " which, he said, had been inaugurated. After speaking of its monopolistic character in words which we have quoted in a previous article, he went on to say: " The corporations are composed of representatives of the unions of workingmen and employers of the same trade or profession, and, as true and genuine organs and institutions of the State, they direct and co-ordinate the activities of the unions in all matters of common interest." While admitting that, according to some, "the new syndical and corporative institution possesses an excessively bureaucratic and political character, he declares that " little reflection is required to ,perceive the advantage of the institution thus summarily described: peaceful collaboration of the classes, repression of Socialist organisations and efforts, the moderating influence of a special ministry."
If it was the Italian regime which he had in mind, the fear of bureaucratic goveinment was justified. But this feature is independent of the corporative system, as can be seen to some extent by reference to the industrial organisation set up
by Salazar in Portugal. There is no necessary connection between such a system as that described by the Pope and the centralised control to which objection is taken. The existence of these corporative systems on the Continent when set beside the tendencies shown to be present in British industrialism indicates the wide field there is for the application of the Guild spirit as that has been expounded in these articles.
A CONCRETE CASE "THE ' Statement Upon Matters of Professional Conduct ' issued by the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society in April, 1939," say S' the Pharmaceutical Guardian for April, 1941, " has been supported recently in the High Court. A chemist who circulated an advertisement to the public referring to sexual weakness, had his name removed from the official register by the Statutory Committee constituted under the Pharmacy and Poisons Act, 1933, for the purpose of controlling the conduct of members of the profession. On appeal, the High Court supported the decision of the Statutory Committee, whose right to take such action where judged 'necessary in the interests of proper professional conduct was admitted."
Here we can see the functioning of the same spirit as that which governed the medieval Guild. Cases of this kind exemplifying the way in which; even to-day, professional associations safeguard their moral prestige could be multiplica.
So far we have dealt with the tendencies present in contemporary industrialism, but the actual functioning of these professional bodies gives us another point of contact for introducing and extending the operation of the Guild spirit.
The prospect therefore of the adoption, in a form suitable to modern conditions, of this medieval institution are particularly bright at the present moment. It behoves us to make the best of it.