The development of these organisms since the revolution seems to support their opinion. On the basis of agreements concluded in December, 1918, the _Arbeitsgemeinschaften_ have taken on considerable extension. Little by little the organisms provided by the statute of December 4, 1918, have been created and expanded. Not only have individual _Arbeitsgemeinschaften_ been established between employers’ and employés’ organizations, but these have also been formed into larger groups. For example, the _Arbeitsgemeinschaft_ of the Ruhr mines, those of the Sarre, of Saxony and of Upper Silesia have united into a central _Arbeitsgemeinschaft_, that represents the interests of the whole coal mining industry of Germany. It is administered by a Central Council composed, of course, of equal numbers of employer and worker delegates. A great number of other industries have organized on the same model and they, too, have added above the local organs a Central Council that represents the general vocational interests. Finally, the Central Committees of the different industries have joined and thus created on December 12, 1919, a central _Arbeitsgemeinschaft_, which constitutes the supreme organization and which is charged with settling by direct agreements between employers and employés and on a parity basis all the problems that touch the life of the industries and trades in Germany. This is sub-divided into fourteen vocational groups: iron, provisions, construction, textile, clothing, paper, leather, transports, glass and ceramics, chemistry, oils and fats, forest and land workers, mines and lumber. The Central Executive Committee (Central Vorstand) is composed of twenty-three members chosen by the employers and twenty-three by the workers. Other Committees are created on which the Central Committee places part of its work. Seven such have already been constituted, on the study of wages, labour legislation, economic policy, raw material, coal and transports, tariffs, the execution of the treaty of peace and the internal regulations of the _Arbeitsgemeinschaft_. All this movement, say the trade unions, represent undeniable progress. For the hostile interests of employer and employé is substituted the _interest of the vocation as a whole_, which creates in the employers and workers of the same vocation a consciousness of the community of their interests and engenders among the different industries a fruitful rivalry. In uniting the _Arbeitsgemeinschaften_ of all the industries, conflicting interests are placed in equilibrium and neutralized and there remains only common consciousness of national interests.