It only applied to “controlled establishments,” and until the later introduction of the Excess Profits Duty the owners of non-controlled establishments were allowed to make such profits as they thought fit. But it was shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen. Throughout the war, Labour never got rid of the notion that the profits of employers were not restricted until Labour had forced the Government to restrict them, and that even then the restriction was on a wholly inadequate scale. Failure of Compulsory Arbitration The substantial effect of the Munitions of War Act, 1915, was to give statutory force to the “Treasury” Agreements. The obligations which the Act imposed upon the owners of controlled establishments were substantially the safeguards for Labour contained in the “Treasury” Agreements, and upon Labour the provisions contained in those Agreements preventing stoppages of work. Part I of the Act provided for the settlement of labour differences and in certain cases for the prohibition of strikes and lock-outs, and for compulsory arbitration. It might well be thought that the circumstances of the war provided a unique occasion for the success of compulsory arbitration, but it was a failure, signal and complete. A great many Unions at first acquiesced in arbitration because as long as prices continued to rise, advances of wages were more or less automatically awarded, so as to adjust wages to cost of living. When, however, the Unions refused to go to arbitration, or, if they went, to comply with the award, it was impossible to make them. If 100,000 men cease work it is impracticable to prosecute or fine all of them; to select a certain number soon raises cries of victimization, those prosecuted are made martyrs, and funds are raised by their colleagues for payment of their fines. While the pretence of enforcing awards was maintained for a certain time, everybody concerned in the administration of the Munitions Act knew that compulsory arbitration was a broken reed. This was proved in the very month the Act was passed, namely, June 1915, in the case of the miners’ strike in South Wales, to which reference is made on p. 156. But in view of the absolute dead-lock at which collective negotiations between employers and trade unions had arrived by the end of 1914, it was essential for the Government to undertake the general regulation of labour itself, and the powers for doing so were conferred on the Minister of Munitions by the Munitions of War Act, 1915. Much adverse criticism has been levelled at the labour administration of the Ministry, but State regulation was the sole remaining remedy; if this be remembered, it must be conceded that labour was regulated as efficiently as circumstances allowed. Effect of Relieving Employers of Responsibility for Labour Management