Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/239

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Mr. Cole told us (page 132) that "only an Industrial Union, embracing the whole personnel of an industry, can assume control over that industry." This seems to be an essential part of the whole scheme. But now comes Mr. Stirling Taylor and observes (page 95) that: "Surely there will be many advantages, if just a healthy competition—and not more than healthy, remember—can be maintained in a town between, for example, a—reasonable number of competing bakers' Guilds."

There certainly will be many advantages to the consumer, but this new element in the Guild State seems to upset the whole structure that has been built up by its former advocates. What becomes of the control of production and its product that Mr. Cole believes to be necessary to the worker if he is to be set free from his "degraded status," if the Guilds have to compete for the custom of the consumer by producing what he wants in competition? What becomes of the workers' right of choosing "whether they will make well or ill"? Under competition the consumer prefers things that are made well, if he is able to distinguish them. Once more we are left wondering what it all means.

Finally let us see how the Guildsmen pro-