SKILLED TRADES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 213, 8 September 1923, Page 17

SKILLED TRADES.

MORE STABLE CONDITIONS NEEDED. DEARTH OF APPRENTICES. (By WORKER.) In Britain, and in America, a? well as in tsew Zealand, and throughout the "Australias/ , the fact that boys aro not coming forward in sufficient numbeM to replace the trained men who from death, and other causes, drop out of the trades, is causing grave concern to all captains of industry. Conferences of business men and labour leaders havp been held, and ways and means discussed to find, if possible, some remedy for a situation that is becoming acute. From the building and allied trades, from engineering firms, and shipbuilders, the reports submitted all point to the same trouble, a shortage of young blood to recruit the industrial army. Indeed unless some 6olution to the problem is found it appears that we are within measurable distance of having few, or no trained men to carry on the constructive work of the world, and that at present, if there were an extensive revival of trade or anything in the nature of a boom, we should not have enough artisans to go round. The cold-blooded fact is that the trades are viewed with increasing disfavour by the rising generation; the payis considered not commensurate with the skill demanded, the work is exacting and in many cases dirty, and your modern youth does not care about dirty jobs. He much prefers to earn his living with his coat on. Then again a trade offers little or no prospect to an ambitious youth; in most other walks of life there i≤ advancement with highly paid positions at the top, and while a boy may never get there he has the chance, whereas in a trade when he has served his time and qualified as a journeyman, that is the limit, uni less it be, possibly, to become a foreman, i when he gets a lot of responsibility and, incidentally, loses his former companions for, except in rare cases, a very inadequate return. The time was when a craftsman took the same pride in the work of his hands as that of the artist who paints a beautiful picture, or carves the marble with his name. But commercialism has changed all that. To-day a tob must be made to pay—which, being interpreted, means turned out as cheaply as possible. The Arbitration Court has reduced all tradesmen, good, bad and indifferent, to one dead level under the generic title worker, and there is no incentive to become a gooc 1 tradesman, for he will receive no more than the "dud." This niggardly appraising of the worth of the skilled man to the community has its influence upon modem craftsmanship, and the deadening effect of this absurd levelling is apparent in all the trades, as mar be seen by anyone who compares the skill and loving care expended upon the building of houses or ships in bygone days, with the neai enough methods of to-day. Then there is the trouble of the hourly wage, paid when it is fine and a man is well enough to work, but involving loss for wet da} , , sickness, and holidays, all so much lost time, never to be overtaken. The artisan is evidently regarded as a useful beast of burden, to be rationed, and his wages adjusted so that he may be able to live and carry on the good work; but that he should have yearnings toward culture, literary taste, or desirp.s to possess some of the beautiful things of life, is not to be thought of. The gibe that if he received higher rates he would spend the money in drink and gambling may apply to a small minority, but it is begging the question. The fact remains that the average worker does not earn sufficient money to live and educate and bring up his family in the way that is their birthright. "A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book." How many tradesmen have even a narrow margin? Are they not rather, the infantrymen of the industrial Torld, pushed to the front by force of circumstance and upon whom falls first the heavy hand of bad times and trade slackness? In the forefront of the battle themselves, is it any wonder that they determine, that come what may, their boys shall not spend five of their best years to learn the trade that condemns them to a year in, year out, struggle to make ends meet. The farmer, and the man who works with his hands, between them, create the bulk of the wealth of, the nation, and carry, Atlas like, upon I their backs the vast superstructure that ' depends upon their labour for its very i existence. Coal, iron and timber are, of course, natural wealth, bjt practically I useless in themselves, until manufactured into marketable commodities. For steamship companies, railroads, and business undertakings generally, there is always plenty of money to be found, but for the men who build our houses and ships, that bridge our gullies and make the thousand and one things without which civilisation would be impossible, a wage that gives them the bare necessities of life for themselves and their families is considered sufficient. That the scarcity of boys in the skilled trades is regarded with widespread dismay among business men is a hopeful sign, and may lead to a setting of the industrial house in order; but before the reaction is stayed and trades once more become attractive, two outstanding reforms are needed —a weekly wage with reasonable restrictions, and insurance against the twin spectres of sickness and unemployment, that sit, uninvited guests, at every artisan's board.