Foremost, in normal times, comes the erroneous belief that all the aspirations of Labour for increased remuneration, shorter hours, improved conditions of employment, can be satisfied to the full out of the existing profits of employers and current production. This has been argued incessantly before myself. It is honestly believed that all that is necessary to liquidate the demands of Labour is to devote to that purpose part only of the existing profits of industry, in their entirety said to be appropriated by avaricious employers. The sole impediment is considered to be the greed of employers, coupled with the fact that as industry is now organized they hold the money-bags. But this error can be exposed if the demands of Labour are reduced to a definite charge per annum on the industry in question, and each particular establishment involved. It can usually be shown on the actual accounts in typical establishments, at any rate in the engineering and shipbuilding industries, that the demands of Labour could not be met out of existing profits. In fact, in many cases, if the whole of employers’ profits were handed over to Labour, and Capital left without any return whatsoever, the demands of Labour could not be satisfied to anything like the full extent. This delusion is one of the most pernicious in industry, because of its widespread acceptance and its fatal results. It has been fostered by the war conditions, as has already been explained. Employers made profits which exceeded in many cases those retainable under the Munitions of War or Finance Acts, and so it frequently did not matter to them what rate of wages they paid in order to expedite work. Moreover, war advances, far above the rate of wages, were distributed under order of the Government Courts of Arbitration to cover the increased cost of living arising out of the abnormal conditions resulting from the war. These war advances were generally paid by Government, in addition to the contract price for munitions. Thus the workman saw very high nominal rates of wages paid, and the employers at the same time making much greater profits than they could by law appropriate. Nothing was, therefore, more natural than to suppose that all demands could on the current basis of output be satisfied out of existing profits. “Passing it on”