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INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE


the official machinery applicable by the Board of Trade to the working of the Conciliation Act of 1896. This took the form of an Industrial Council which consisted of 13 representatives of em- ployers and the same number of representatives of workers, invited by the President of the Board of Trade to serve on the council with, as chairman, Sir George (afterwards Lord) Askwith who, at the same time, was appointed Chief Industrial Com- missioner. This Industrial Council of 19 n was formed as a permanent body for inquiring into trade disputes and for taking action, without compulsory powers, by way of conciliation; that is, it was to be a national conciliation board. In this capacity the council came to very little, and subsequent action has pro- ceeded along different lines. The council's principal achievement was an inquiry into the subject of industrial agreements made at the request of the Government, the report on which was issued in 1913 (Cd. 6952). This contained a recommendation that, in certain conditions, the operation of a collective industrial agreement should be capable of extension by law so as to apply compulsorily not only to the signatories but also to a minority in the industry which had not been a party to the agreement. This recommendation, to which considerable objection has been taken, anticipated one of a similar nature contained in paragraph 21 of the first Whitley report.

The second important instance of the use of the name " In- dustrial Council," otherwise than in connexion with Whitley councils, is more recent. As a result of a great industrial con- ference convened by the Government in Feb. 1919 a report (Cmd. 501, 1920), dealing with a variety of industrial problems, was prepared. This included a proposal for the formation of a National Industrial Council, or what may be described as an advisory " Parliament " of industry. The proposals as to the membership and objects of the council followed the lines adopted in the Whitley councils; but the National Industrial Council, consisting of 400 members fully representative of and duly ac- credited by the employers' associations and the trade unions, was to speak for industry as a whole and on matters of general interest to all industry. It was pointed out that the council was to supplement and not to supersede any of the existing machinery; the general definition of its objects reads: " to secure the largest possible measure of joint action between the representative organizations of employers and workpeople and to be the normal channel through which the opinions and experience of industry will be sought by the Government on all questions affecting industry as a whole." At the beginning of Jan. 1922 the council had not yet been formed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. See Reports of the Committee on Relations be- tween Employers and Employed (The Whitley Reports), Cd. 8606, 9002, 9085, 9099 and 9153; the Industrial Reports, Nos. I to 4, of the Ministry of Labour; Reconstruction Pamphlets, No. 18, Ministry of Reconstruction; Joint Industrial Councils Bulletin, Nos. I, 2 and 3, Ministry of Labour.

Report of the National Provisional Joint Committee on the Applica- tion of the Whitley Report to the Administrative Departments of the Civil Service (Cmd. 198); American Bureau of Labour Statistics: Bulletin No. 255, Joint Industrial Councils in Great Britain; La politique de paix sociale en Angleterre, by Elie Halevy, in Revue d'Economie Politique, No. 4, 1919 ; "The Industrial Outlook" in Round Table, Dec. 1918 ; Recommendations^ on the Whitley Report put for- ward by the Federation of British Industries, 1917; National Guilds or Whitley Councils? (National Guilds League) 1918; The Industrial Council for the Building Industry (Garton Foundation, 1919) ; Industrial Councils and their Possibilities, by T. B. Johnston, in Industrial Administration (1920) ; Works Committees and Indus- trial Councils, by the Rt. Hon. J. H. Whitley, M.P., in Labour and Industry (1920); Workshop Committees, by C. G. Renold (Report of British Association, 1918) ; The History of Trade Unionism (1920 ed.) by Sidney and Beatrice Webb; The Labour Year Book for 1919 ; Report of Provisional Joint Committee of Industrial Conference (Cmd. 501, 1920). (R. Wl.)

INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT: see SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.

INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE. The subject of health in relation to work is a wider one than is covered by present-day legislation, wider probably than ever can be covered by statute and regula- tion. The State is interested in the prevention and treatment of disease; but industry is directly concerned with the preserva- tion of health, whereby contentment may be attained and unrest

abolished, whereby greater productivity may result as regards both quality and quantity of output and increased earning power, whereby less waste may occur from labour turnover or from lost time due to sickness and injury. In fact, industry as represented by both capital and labour requires a maximum of human effi- ciency and activity, and a minimum of over-fatigue and ill-health.

Appreciation of the position as regards industrial health was forced to the front during the World War owing to labour scarcity, and since then by the high cost of labour. While in Great Britain the welfare movement (see WELFARE WORK) has been developing to deal with one side of the problem, in the U.S.A. the tendency has rather been towards the more purely medical side, and there have come into existence factory medical officers entrusted with examining all candidates for work, reexamining periodically those employed, organizing First Aid for sickness and accidents, and establishing home visitation of the sick. An industrial medical service is thus coming into existence which is still working Qut its own salvation, neither aided nor impeded by any central authority. Later this American health service will have many lessons to teach. Although industrial medical service is slower in growth in Great Britain, the need has been recognized there for knowledge as to the conditions which make for maximum health and activity knowledge which must form the foundation of any future industrial health service. Industry has in the past owed much to British physiologists, such as Dr. J. S. Haldane for knowledge upon respiration and the effect of warm humid atmospheres, and Dr. Leonard Hill with relation to the science of ventilation. During the World War, in England, the Health of Munition Workers' Committee set on foot pioneer work which was supplemented by investigation initiated by the Home Office into the subject of industrial fatigue. On completion of the war the work so started was entrusted to a special body, the In- dustrial Fatigue Research Board, with the following terms of reference: "to consider and investigate the relation of hours of labour and of other conditions of employment, including methods of work, to the production of fatigue, having regard both to industrial efficiency and to the preservation of health among the workers." This board is now part of the organization of the Medical Research Council.

Certain information has been acquired through these various sources, which may be briefly summarized as follows: (i.) A maximum of health is needed for a maximum of efficiency, (ii.) Evidence points to maximum efficiency being attained when output of the individual increases steadily but gradually hour by hour during the day, and day by day throughout the week, rather than when maximum output occurs early in the day or in the week, (iii.) Temperature exerts an important influence upon activity; the optimum for heavy physical work is at two or three degrees above or below a mean of 55 F., and the optimum for light sedentary work similarly varies about a mean of 65 F., but in no case should an even monotonous temperature be maintained, (iv.) Ventilation is possibly more important than temperature, not, under normal circumstances, for providing fresh air to breathe, but to stimulate the skin by varied currents of air and to save expenditure of energy by preventing visible perspiration, (v.) The expenditure of physical energy requires, in order to maintain maximum efficiency and avoid over-fatigue, the interpolation of rest pauses which, in proportion to the amount of energy expended, need to be of longer or shorter duration and in the case of heavy physical labour may need to be of longer duration than the period of activity, (vi.) Food suitable in quantity and in quality is required to supply the worker with energy; it must also contain a sufficient amount of vitamines which must be increased in quantity, simultaneously with the supply of food, for workers doing heavy work. Provision should be made for supplying food on factory premises, and care should be taken that the menu is varied, (vii.) Monotony should be avoided, not necessarily monotony such as is associated with repetition processes, but monotony in temperature, in ventila- tion, in long spells without rest pauses, and in food supply, (viii.) Considerable increase in output (and by hypothesis in health) may result from shortening hours of labour, especially if