THE I.L.O. IN OPERATION The first conference was convoked at Washington in Oct. 1919. The International Office was not yet constituted. The programme of the conference had been fixed in the Peace Treaty itself, and a committee of organization entrusted with its preparation. Six draft conventions were voted concerning: (1) The limitation of hours of work in industrial establishments to eight hours a day and 48 hours a week. (2) Unemployment. (3) The employment of women before and after child-birth. (4) Night work for women. (5) The minimum age for the admission of children to industrial employment. (6) Night work for young persons in industry. The Washington conference constituted the Interna tional Labour Office, and nominated its first governing body. This governing body appointed the director, M. Albert Thomas. In 1920 a conference was held at Genoa, which was devoted to maritime questions and passed three draft conventions. The first fixed the age of admission to work at sea, the second dealt with unemployment benefit in case of loss by shipwreck, the third dealt with finding employment for seamen.
In 1921 the third session at Geneva voted seven draft con ventions dealing with : (1) The age of admission for children to agricultural employment. (2) The right of association and com bination of agricultural labourers. (3) Workmen's compensation in agriculture. (4) The use of white lead in painting. (5) The application of the weekly rest to industrial establishments. (6) The minimum age of admission of young persons to employ ment as trimmers or stokers. (7) The compulsory medical exam ination of children and young persons employed at sea. Each of these sessions voted at the same time a number of recommenda tions.
The fourth session at Geneva in 1922 only voted a recommen dation concerning statistical and other information relative to emigration and immigration. The fifth session at Geneva in 1923 also voted only one recommendation concerning general prin ciples for the organization of inspection services to ensure the applications of laws and regulations for the protection of the workers. The sixth session at Geneva in 1924 instituted the pro cedure of giving the conventions two readings, at intervals of one year. Some conventions were thus given a first reading, most of them being voted in 1925. The session of 1924 definitely passed one recommendation only concerning the utilization of the spare time of workers. The seventh session, Geneva, 1925, finally voted four draft conventions concerning (1) workmen's compensation for accidents, (2) workmen's compensation for occupational dis eases, (3) equality of treatment for national and foreign workers in workmen's compensation for accidents, (4) night work in bakeries.
The eighth session, Geneva, 1926, adopted a draft convention concerning the simplification of the inspection of emigrants on board ship; and the ninth session, also held in Geneva in 1926, adopted two draft conventions concerning respectively seamen's articles of agreement and the repatriation of seamen. The tenth session, Geneva, 1927, adopted two draft conventions on sickness insurance, one for workers in industry and commerce and domestic servants, and the other for agricultural workers. At all these ses sions recommendations also were adopted. The 1927 session of the Conference put into operation for the first time a new procedure, known as the "double discussion" procedure. According to this system, a question placed on the agenda of the Conference by the governing body will, at the first of two successive sessions, form the subject of a general discussion, and if the Conference considers that it is suitable for a convention or recommendation, it will determine the form of the questionnaire to be sent to gov ernments with a view to the detailed examination of the question at the succeeding session of the Conference.
In all, not counting recommendations, 25 International Labour conventions were submitted to the States for ratification between 1919 and 1927. These conventions dealt with industry, commerce and, in some cases, navigation and agriculture. As regards agri culture a dispute arose in 1921. It was maintained that the Inter national Labour Organization had not the right, under the Peace Treaty, to deal with the protection of agricultural labourers. On this point an advisory opinion of the Permanent Court of Inter national Justice was taken through the mediation of the League of Nations under Art. 14 of the Peace Treaty. The Permanent Court gave a judgment recognizing the competence of the Inter national Labour Organization.
Ratifications.—In Oct. 1927, the League of Nations had reg istered 243 ratifications. This figure has given rise to much dis cussion. The International Labour Organization includes 55 States. If one excepts the conventions adopted since 1925, not many of which had been ratified by 1927, about goo acts of ratification could in theory have taken place for the other 16 conventions. There have been only 224 ratifications, that is, about one-fourth of the total possible. But this low figure calls for certain remarks. The same value cannot be attached to all ratifications.
1. There are a certain number of conventions which could not be ratified by all States, despite their general character. The maritime conventions, for example, do not interest the States which have neither coasts nor ships. Similarly, there are countries of small proprietors where the number of wage-earning agricul tural labourers is quite insignificant. There are others, again, where certain unhealthy- industries against which conventions are directed, have not established themselves.
2. There are numerous States in which industry is of little im portance and where national labour legislation hardly exists. The Hejaz, Siam and other states have indicated that the measures laid down in certain conventions are inapplicable to the conditions under which the wage-earning labourers in these countries work.
3. International action is only beginning, and all sorts of reasons delay ratification ; not merely the inexperience and inattention of the great national administrations, for which the international con ventions are often matters of secondary importance, but also the hesitation to contract obligations which sometimes appear to threaten the output, or at least the competitive capacity, of the country on the international market.
Nevertheless, important results have been obtained. In the eight years preceding the War the two conventions of Berne had been ratified by a very few states only. When, since the World War, such conventions as that which forbids night work for women or that which attempts to cope with unemployment have obtained the ratification of 16 or 20 states, including great indus trial countries like Great Britain, France or Italy, many thousands of workpeople are definitely assured of the benefits of reform. For, under the text of the conventions, the contracting states can not, for a period of 1 o years, go back on the obligations which they have assumed, even in crises where they would be tempted to do so. The effect of the ratifications has been also particularly important in certain countries, for example in India, where con ditions of labour have been greatly improved by the application of the measures contained in the international conventions.
But even when the conventions are not ratified, they become the model on which the new national legislations form themselves. Belgium, for example, before it ratified the convention, established the eight-hour day in 1921 in strict conformity with the clauses of the Washington Hours Convention. Similarly, all the young states of Central and Eastern Europe which were formed or resuscitated in 1919 have modelled their entire labour legislation on the general rules laid down by the International Labour Or ganization. Thus, more progress has been achieved than might be imagined.
A Centre of work of the International Labour Organization is not confined to preparing the international conventions, to seeking to obtain their ratification by the states, or to watching over their application. Art. 396 of the Peace Treaty also assigns it further functions which include the "collec tion and distribution of information on all subjects relating to the international adjustment of conditions of industrial life and labour." Also "the conduct of such special investigation as may be ordered by the conference." It has "to edit and publish in French and English . . . a periodical paper." The conference may even assign to it, besides the functions mentioned above, "such other powers and duties" as it chooses.
Thus, since 1919, the International Labour Office Sias become a sort of great clearing house of all information on social ques tions. It has a library of 150,00o volumes. The ideal would be to make it a centre where workers would be certain of finding all publications of all countries touching on the regulation of labour. This office collects by means of corresponding offices in Paris, Rome, Berlin, London, Washington and Tokyo, and col laborators in other capitals, periodical information on social de velopments in most great countries. It publishes two general periodicals : the weekly Industrial and Labour Information, which gives important news in the various branches of social life, and a scientific monthly review, the International Labour Review. It further publishes the Industrial Safety Survey, which reports all new measures taken and all experiences obtained regarding safety of labour ; and a Monthly Record of Migration. It publishes reviews or bulletins giving a summary of all these publications for the information of different countries, in German in Berlin, in Italian in Rome, in Spanish in Madrid, and in Japanese in Tokyo. Carrying on the tradition inaugurated by the Basle office, it publishes an annual collection, in French, English and German, of the labour legislation promulgated every year in different coun tries (Legislative Series). It has undertaken enquiries on a large scale in all matters of particular importance. Among them may be mentioned the great Enquete sur la Production which deals with the economic situation of the world between 1918 and 1925; an enquiry into the conditions of labour in all the coal producing countries; an enquiry into legislation and labour conditions in Russia; another into labour conditions in Asia, etc. It publishes quarterly a Bibliography of Industrial Hygiene.
The I.L.O. has also attempted to simplify and unify methods of labour statistics used in different countries. Three conferences of labour statisticians have already been convoked, and corre sponding committees, consultations of experts and special com missions, permit the Office to maintain contact with technicians and scientists in the various branches of social life.
Internal Organization of the Office.—In order to deal with its twofold task of maintaining contact with the governments, and especially with the Ministries of Labour, with which it corresponds directly under Art. 397 of the Treaty, and with the organizations of workers or employers, the Office has had to organize itself on a sound basis. Under the Peace Treaty it is administered by a governing body nominated for three years by the Conference. The governing body consists of 24 members, of which 12 repre sent the governments, six the employers and six the workers. Of the 12 government representatives eight belong ex officio to the most important industrial countries (Germany, Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, India, Italy and Japan). If any dispute arises about relative industrial importance, this must be settled by the Council of the League of Nations. A system of indices (based on population, working population in relation to the total popu lation, steam horse-power, length of railway lines, etc.) makes it possible to decide this point. The six workers' representatives are nominated by the delegates to the Conference representing the workers, and the six employers' representatives by the employers' delegates. The Conference has proposed to enlarge the governing body, but this will need the amendment of the Peace Treaty, and it has not yet been done on account of the slow procedure for the ratification of such amendments.
The governing body nominates a director and gives him his instructions. The director nominated in 192o was M. Albert Thomas, formerly a French Minister of State. He is assisted by a deputy director, who is an Englishman, Mr. Harold B. Butler. The staff of the International Labour Office amounted in 1927 to about 376 employees of all ranks, who were drawn from 32 dif f erent nationalities. Under Art. 395 of the Peace Treaty the director "shall as far as possible, with due regard to the efficiency of the work of the office, select persons of different nationalities." The nations chiefly represented among the personnel are France and Great Britain, because French and English are the two official languages used by the office ; next, Switzerland, because the execu tive personnel is recruited locally.
The budget of the office varies between 7,000,00o and 8,000,000 gold francs, and is introduced,annually by the governing body be fore the Assembly of the League of Nations. It is supplied for the most part by contributions from the states which are members of the Organization. This contribution is fixed under a scale adopted by the League of Nations for its own contributions.
The organization has often been criticized and reproached with the desire to exceed the limits of its competence. The Permanent Court of International Justice decided in the two cases brought before it that this criticism was not justified. It has also been reproached with being exclusively guided by the workers' inter ests, and even with being unduly influenced by Socialist thought. Yet no concrete case can be urged in support of such an accusa tion against the director, or even less against the governing body. But one fact must not be forgotten, which was brought out in 1921 by a report of the Commission of Enquiry of the League of Nations: the International Labour Office is not simply an organ of conciliation or for keeping the balance between various indus trial interests; it must look for conciliation only in order to attain a definite end, which is to realize the programme drawn up in the preamble to Part XIII. of the Peace Treaty. Experience also shows that measures protecting workmen are never fully carried through unless they are made by agreement with the workers and unless the workers are interested in their application.
The International Labour Organization, as conceived and con ducted since 1919, has been able to keep the sympathies and con fidence of the important workers' organizations. It is true that the Communists, the leaders of the Third International, have violently attacked it. But the International Federation of Amsterdam, with its 13,000,00o members, the Christian Unions, the Italian Fascist organization, take a regular part in the conferences of Geneva, and demand that the conventions be applied. It is to be noted also that the employers continue to be represented at the conferences and on the governing body. The International Labour Organiza tion, while it aims at bringing about the "wellbeing, physical, moral and intellectual, of the wage-earners," attempts at the same time to take account both of the interests of production, and (to quote Art. 427 of the Peace Treaty) of the "differences of climate, habits and customs, of economic opportunity and industrial tra dition," which "make strict uniformity in the conditions of labour difficult of immediate attainment." As the Preamble to Part XIII. of the Treaty indicates, the objects in view are two-fold : to protect the various countries against unfair competition based on the exploitation of the work ers, and also, directly and spontaneously, to enable the workers to enjoy a higher standard of living and work. The aim is not merely to create a balance between different countries, but also to give just treatment to individuals. Even if the first object has lost some of its force, the second is as important as ever. What ever may be the vicissitudes of political life, and however much the tide of the labour movement may ebb and flow in the indus trial communities of the world, the need for social justice con tinues to be strongly felt. Further, from the general point of view, the I.L.O. has helped to popularize among the industrial masses, both of the workers and of the employers, the idea of a definite peace based on an economic understanding and the social solidarity of the nations. It is already the great centre of international collaboration. It is recognized as being one of the great factors of peace. Its history bears witness to all the diffi culties attending new international creations. The life of a nation enjoys the natural support of geographical contiguity, of racial community and of age-long tradition. An international organiza tion can come to birth and live only if public opinion and the judgment of the governments favour a common programme. It appears that the programme of social justice drawn up in the Peace Treaty has sufficient authority and sufficient reason to assure the existence of the International Labour Organization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See The Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Bibliography.-See The Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, Part xiii. (H.M. Stationery Office, London, 1925). A list of publications of the International Labour Office can be obtained from the Publications Department of the Office at Geneva, or from their correspondents in different countries.