o analyze the estimates submitted by manufacturers and to
compare them, item by item, with the costs in its own factories. It
finds that, through the mere pooling of knowledge, {125} "some of the
reductions made in the price of shells and similar munitions," as the
Chartered Accountant employed by the Department tells us, "have been as
high as 50% of the original price." The household consumer grumbles at
the price of coal. For once in a way, amid a storm of indignation from
influential persons engaged in the industry, the facts are published.
And what do they show? That, after 2/6 has been added to the already
high price of coal because the poorer mines are alleged not to be
paying their way, 21% of the output examined by the Commission was
produced at a profit of 1/- to 3/- per ton, 32% at a profit of 3/- to
5/-, 13% at a profit of 5/- to 7/-, and 14% at a profit of 7/- per ton
and over, while the profits of distributors in London alone amount in
the aggregate to over $3,200,000, and the co-operative movement, which
aims not at profit, but at service, distributes household coal at a
cost of from 2/- to 4/- less per ton than is charged by the coal
trade![1]

"But these are exceptions." They may be. It is possible that in the
industries, in which, as the recent Committee on Trusts has told us,
"powerful Combinations or Consolidations of one kind or another are in
a position effectively to control output and prices," not only costs
are cut to the bare minimum but profits are inconsiderable. But then
why insist on this humiliating tradition of secrecy with regard to
them, when every one who uses their products, and every one who renders
honest service to production, stands to gain by publicity? If industry
is to become a profession, whatever its {126} management, the first of
its professional rules should be, as Sir John Mann told the Coal
Commission, that "all cards should be placed on the table." If it were
the duty of a Public Department to publish quarterly exact returns as
to costs of production and profits in all the firms throughout an
industry, the gain in mere productive efficiency, which should appeal
to our enthusiasts for output, would be considerable; for the
organization whose costs were least would become the standard with
which all other types of organization would be compared. The gain in
_morale_, which is also, absurd though it may seem, a condition of
efficiency, would be incalculable. For i