[2] Amid increased competition after the federation of Australia, Bell began making cakes and pastries, and his confectionery shops became tea rooms.
[1] By 1925, Bell was chairman of the Master Caterers' Association; in that year he faced an unruly strike from the Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union that lasted for four weeks.
With public criticism over the lack of police involvement, and censure motion made against the government due to that issue, Bell pushed for the union to be deregistered, but was not successful.
Later becoming the Roelands Aboriginal Mission, this venture stemmed from his time in the Children's Court, and his observations of how young offenders and miscreants were treated in the United States while on a business trip in 1915.
[1][4] M. Tamblyn, writing for the Australian Dictionary of Biography in 1975, considers Bell to be a significant figure due to his being a "manufacturer in the early years of the century when Western Australia lagged behind the other States in developing urban industries".