Wages and conditions of employment must always be matters of collective bargaining between employers and employed and not for superimposition by Government upon either or both of them. In my view, national settlement of wages and conditions in an industry is essential to wage stability. A national settlement does not, however, involve a uniform national wage. Complete discussion and national settlement entail for each industry the organization of all the employers into one effective federation, and of all the workers, not necessarily into one Union, but into Unions which are embraced in one executive federation. Only where responsible representative and disciplined federations of employers and workers exist in an industry can there be effective national negotiation of wages questions, or in industries in which Whitley Councils exist, between the two sides of the Council. I look forward to the time when the organization in each industry for the settlement of all industrial conditions will be developed into an organization consisting of representatives of (1) employers; (2) administrative and technical and supervisory personnel; (3) Trade Unions, and (4) consumers. Questions affecting the industry as a whole would be settled by all four sections; questions, e.g. of wages, by the representatives of the employers, Trade Unions and consumers. If a wage agreement is negotiated in any industry providing for excessive wages and therefore high costs of production and high prices, is it to be unchallengeable when the industry is a public necessity? There were many such agreements made during and immediately after the war. I see no way of reviewing such agreements when once made; all attempts by Government to do so under the Munitions of War Acts were unsuccessful. The only practicable method of safeguarding the consuming public is to have, as I suggest, efficient representatives of the public present at, and entitled to take an active part in, the joint conferences of federated employers and Unions when wages are being negotiated, as on the Railway National Wages Boards. Systems of Remuneration No one can dogmatize and say what system of industrial remuneration should be adopted, whether time, piece-work—collective or individual—premium-bonus, bonus on output, profit-sharing, or co-partnership. That all depends upon the conditions of the industry, its peculiar psychology, especially its past history; it must always be a matter for negotiation. But I am the strongest believer in a fair system of payment by results, as being, under proper safeguards, the best for the worker, the employer and the consumer. A steel worker or boilermaker will swear by it; a carpenter or joiner calls it “the device of the devil.” Hence my reference to industrial psychology. What is a Fair Wage?