The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

CHAPTER XII A PRECEDENT—AND WHAT TO AVOID

LIkE other wise men, I distrust all precedents. When they seem most @ propos, they are most misleading and elusive. The truth of it is that no precedent, ancient or modern, can encompass man’s restless spirit, his enquiring mind, or his tumultuous thoughts. Since, however, the British people like to be guided by precedents, or at least by previous experience, let us consider the story of the Ministry of Munitions.

That gigantic organisation, towards the end of the war, was practically coterminous with the industrial life of the nation. If everybody, directly or indirectly employed by the Ministry of Munitions, had been put into khaki (the idea was mooted and even considered) there would have been vast tracts of industrial Britain where civilian clothes would have been confined to very old people, professionals and retail traders. The Ministry represented about three-quarters of the non-combatant population. It controlled and coordinated the great majority of our productive industries. And when it did not actually control, it ‘‘ protected ’’ essential workers from the kind attentions of the recruiting officer. It attracted to munition factories literally millions of men and

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