PAPERSPAST

THE BREAKDOWN

'The complete and permsaexrt -'/ .. absorption of tiia whole avaJftfelf * tafeeur force Iβ inconsistent Wffih the efficiency aud fcjje progress '*■" of industry, as those terms are «©U J ttndorstood." ~ "Times" Jeadlpg ,"-article yesUarday.' ' We itftYe never % this , country ' * riade changes because we were co»--'inced that they were thtforetfcsuHjr Josirable. w e have always waited i s long as we could, put tip with in- ■ clung to tbfings which wo were used to, only scrapped them lien they had become clearly un'U&ble. As long as a system or an nstibutio-n works-, we will not go to ke trouble of altering It. It i 3 to this habit of t'he British isVnd that th,-9 defenders of Produc- I'.'oa for Profit appeal. Thej maintain I liat the oystom works. Therefore it nauld be rasJi and fool r sh, tlicy ssqr, even to begin substituting any other (system for it. We are glad to aeK al'j3 "Times" has at last 'had the hon:ty to drop this vary misleading and r<itorlously unsound line of argument. It admitted yesterday that vm- Car ppesetntj condltfons it is imposrt'lb i: to . hope that employment can re ifcJund for all who sieek it. The post we can ; expect as to bring duwa jUie total unemrloyed from a railllon quartetr to half that irambe*. frank confession of fail ir&> ttero 'is an adm'ssion whicl nocks out 'nine-tenths of the reaons given for going on ias we are. Why go on with a system which has ;roken down? Why try to patch uj ' .amothod which can never give us X contented and comfortably populajtlon, wh,ich must leave us always p-th millions of people on our bands, ?he workless and their Saniilies, deprived of the possibility of a decent i existence? Even if we were to resign ourselves to thjat, even if w,e made provision for a better maintenance of thje workless, we should be going on nevertheless with. 1 a method of pro- ,: duct'ott which, derelict as it is, caittnot even provid»e a ineasomable wage for those whom It does employ. The spectth which we drag to-day, from the obscurity 6f a confidential circular is a painful illustration of the banding together of the few who poektit the • profits of production to the mass of workers from gefating more than a bare subsistence. This speech was made by Mr. Charles Booth, a leading sihipowner, to fellow-ie&nnloyers in. the Port of Liverpool; it called upon them to be prepared to resist, as trade improved, diemand« by t3xo work&rs to be allowed to b-emeifit by the improve- ■ ment. , They must, however, not merely refuse increfesi^;. they must seek to k-aep- their employees quiet by "welfare work." With this cynical advice Mr. Booth closed an address which had bogun by -expressing satisfaction at reductions of wages 'iruounttag to over- four million pounds a year. Of 6ourae, if the workers think a -ystem which must admittedly ftittep an enormous number unemployed nd which treats the workers as machines, only entitled to just as much. is will keep them in working ordi&r— if th.'sy are 'willing to put up with ,Ms system and think it is" worth keep'-ng a bit longer, they can keep c t. Otherwise they can set about changing it. They hayjes th<e power. It is their own. affair.—"Daily Herald," May, 1923.

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