or that purpose they are as well qualified as any body
that we could devise. In this sphere their jurisdiction will be
complete. The Board of Trade will not retry the question of what is
the right minimum rate. Another and quite different question will be
decided by the Board of Trade. They will decide whether the minimum
rate which has been prescribed by the Trade Board commands sufficient
support in the trade to make its enforcement by inspection and
prosecution likely to be effective.

That is the division between the responsibility which the Trade Boards
will have and the responsibility which we shall reserve to ourselves.
I shall be quite ready in Committee to express that intention, which
is in the Bill, in a simpler and stronger manner, and to make the
function of the Board of Trade a positive and not a negative one, so
that when the Trade Board has fixed the minimum rate of wages it
shall, after an interval of six months, acquire the force of law, and
shall be enforced by compulsory powers, unless in the meanwhile the
Board of Trade decides or rules otherwise. For my part, I gladly give
an assurance that it is our intention to put the compulsory provisions
of this Bill into full effect upon at least one of the trades in the
schedule, at as early a date as possible, in order to bring about the
fulfilment of a much-needed and long-overdue experiment.

Now I come to the probationary period, and I know that there are a
great many who have stated that it is mere waste of time. I, on the
contrary, have been led to the opinion that it is vital to any
practical or effective policy against sweating. It is no use to
attempt, in trades as complex and obscure as these with which we are
dealing, to substitute outside authority for trade opinion. The only
hope lies in the judicious combination of the two, each acting and
reacting upon the other. A mere increase of the penal provisions and
inspection would be a poor compensation for the active support of a
powerful section within the trade itself. It is upon the probationary
period that we rely to enable us to rally to the Trade Board and to
its minimum wage the best employers in the trade. In most instances
the best employers in the trade are already paying wages equal or
superior to the probable minimum which the Trade Board will establish.
The inquiries which I have set on foot in the various trades scheduled
have brought to me most satisfactory assurances from nearly all