At the same time, do not let us suppose that these Trade Boards will, in the first instance, be very strong or representative bodies.  They are to be formed in trades mainly worked by women, where no organisation has ever yet taken root, where there are as yet no means of finding and focusing an effective trade opinion.  Where possible, they will be partly elective; in many cases they will, I expect, have to begin by being almost entirely nominated.  In some cases it will be upon the official members alone that the main burden will fall.  I could not ask the House to confer upon bodies of this nebulous character, not representative, not elective in any democratic sense, responsible not to constituents, nor to a public department, nor to Parliament itself in any way, the absolute and final power of enforcing by the whole apparatus of the law any decision, whether wise or foolish, upon wage questions to which they may come by the narrowest majority.  The work which we entrust to them wholly and finally is sufficiently difficult and important.  We direct them by this Bill to prescribe minimum rates of wages.  They are to find the minimum rate.  For 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