By DOUGLAS HYDE In London on Monday last were two

men who have the practical answers to all the most difficult production problems which trouble the dreams of Sir Stafford Cripps and his colleagues in the Government.
They are M. Leon Harmel and M. Jean Harmel, his son, directors of the large woollen mills at Val-des-Bois, France, which today employ some 500 workers and at which, during the 100 years of their existence, not a single strike has occurred.
begun That work was ben by the saintly Leon Harmel I (1829-1915) whose beatification cause was introduced in 1943 and who evolved the lines still followed at Val-des-Bois.
And the ideas he practised there influenced Pope Leo XIII in the writing of Reruns Novarum.
"They were." said his 80-year-old son, Leon 11, in London on Monday, " the laws of sound common sense—as well as of Catholic practice, and the visible results have confirmed the wisdom of his method."
It was that "common-sense " note which struck me in particular when I talked to the Harmels after the show on Monday, for at Val-desBois, they have avoided all the pitfalls into which well-intentioned Catholic employers tend so readily to fall.
NO " PATERNALIST " The great Leon Harmel was not a " paternalist " and that is something which is borne in mind the whole of the time by his successors.
Workers at Val-des-Bois are not hand picked. They include many
would
good Catholics as one wou ex hand picked. They include many
would
a good Catholics as one wou ex pect in little French village, But they are an ordinary cross-section of French workers and include both Socialists and Communists too.
All are members of their appropriate trade union (so often the tendency is to claim that in " model " factories there is no need for this, or to create a special " company " union for them).
" We do not want to isolate them from their fellow-workers in their industry throughout Fiance," M. Leon Humel told me. " It is better that they should be loyal members of their union."
The directors, too. are members of the appropriate employers' organisation. playing their part among their fellow-employers. "... THROUGH THE WORKER" "The good of the worker through the worker and with him, as far as possible never without him and certainly never in spite of him," was a favourite saying of Leon Harmel I, and it is by respecting the worker's point of view, as an individual, that industrial peace has been maintained.
Thus, for example, the Harmels told me how. when there was to be a national strike oftheir industry, they told the works council that it would he wrong of them to work and so appear as disloyal trade unionists.
We understand your difficulty," the directors said, " and so we shall shut the works for a brief holiday as from tonight."
Equally, when the union was demanding a special holiday bonus for its members which the employers' organisation was resisting, there was another conference of workers and management. " We consider your demand a just one," said the directors, " but we do not want to defy our own organisation. We shall therefore give you an advance on your Christmas bonus to that sum demanded by your union."
40-HOUR WEEK
Wages paid in the factory are above the official trade ade unn rate. The factory works on a union basis but most
week is workers are in sisting on working 52 at the
moment. There arc generous incentives in overtime payment to encourage this. Apercentage of the profits is paid each Christmas as a bonus, but the factory is not officially run along either co-partnership or profitsharing lines.
A " works council " usually thought to be a " modern " idea in industry, has existed there since the last century.
Elected representatives of the workpeople discuss all problems with the management in an atmosphere of charity and then report back to their various departments in the firm's time. The workers have their own mutual aid associations with " family allowances scheme and a
" health scheme (without State aid), clubs, schools, and an excellent hostel for young girls. run by nuns, And in every department of the works hangs a crucifix, in the factory is a shrine of Our Lady of the Factory. The industrial peace created and preserved at Val-desBois is a Catholic peace.