The object of the councils would not be to undertake the general management of the business, but should be directed to the relation of workers and management, to secure efficiency and greater production, a fair participation in and distribution of the benefits derived from success, and wholesome conditions for those engaged in the work, and to avoid dispute by agreeing action beforehand wherever possible.

Thirdly, in this as in most other cases where power is given to representatives of organised bodies, there is a risk of undue interference with the liberty of those who do not belong to them or who are in a minority.

A dead level of uniformity may be secured, experiments and new lines of action by enterprising and original minds may be interfered with.

The old problem of reconciling high organisation and corporate action with individual liberty may present itself in an acute form.
Already before the War the tendency to crush out individuality was becoming stronger and stronger, the private firms of manufacturers were being squeezed out by highly organised combines, or tempted by high prices offered to hand over their businesses to them.

In banking, similarly, the absorption and amalgamation of smaller banks has been going on with startling rapidity.