The factory is the natural and fundamental unit of
industrial democracy. This involves, not only that the factory must be
free, as far as possible, to manage its own affairs, but also that the
democratic unit of the factory must be made the basis of the larger
democracy of the Guild, and that the larger organs of Guild
administration and government must be based largely on the principle
of factory representation." [Footnote: _Op. cit._, p. 40.]
Factory is, of course, a very loose word, and Mr. Cole asks us to take
it as meaning mines, shipyards, docks, stations, and every place which
is "a natural center of production." [Footnote: _Op. cit._, p.
41] But a factory in this sense is quite a different thing from an
industry. The factory, as Mr. Cole conceives it, is a work place where
men are really in personal contact, an environment small enough to be
known directly to all the workers. "This democracy if it is to be
real, must come home to, and be exercisable directly by, every
individual member of the Guild." [Footnote: _Op. cit._, p. 40.]
This is important, because Mr. Cole, like Jefferson, is seeking a
natural unit of government. The only natural unit is a perfectly
familiar environment. Now a large plant, a railway system, a great
coal field, is not a natural unit in this sense. Unless it is a very
small factory indeed, what Mr. Cole is really thinking about is the
shop.
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