The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1926 LESSONS FROM AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 9, 12 January 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1926 LESSONS FROM AMERICA.

For the cause that laclcs assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that wt can do.

We have never encouraged New Zealanders to imitate American methods slavishly, or to taks American ways and institutions at the value of the American "booster," but there is much to be learnt from that nation. No report of the kind, has excited so much interest as that recently issued by the mission sent to America by the Federation of British Industries. Its frank acknowledgment of the amazing industry of the United States and its discussion of reasons, have been widely published. It happens that about fhe same time the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States issued a report on labour conditions in England, and it is most instructive to note the points in which the two reports agree.

Britain is ahead of the United States in labour legislation, and British unions enjoy wider recognition and wield more power than American. These British visitors found, however, that the American wage-earner did not impose restrictions on output, but co-operated with his employer to achieve the greatest possible efficiency in production. The American employer believed in high wages and high output, and his worker saw that he obtained that production. The shrinkage in immigration had made labour-saving devices more important, but the \iniojis did not impose restrictions on their xise. Figures showed that production had increased much mora rapidly than the number of wage-earners employed. Moreover—and this is the most important of all the mission's observations—''the fatal doctrine that there is a necessary conflict of interests" between labour and capital did not prevail, and there was a widespread development of the system of encouraging employees to take up shares in their concern. In addition to these favourable factors of capital-labour relations, the mission drew attention to the spread of education, the general level of which in the technical branches was said to be extremely high.

Tlie American report pn English industry reaches similar conclusions about trade union restrictions and the need for more co-operation between capital and labour. The Association's investigator notes a relative deficiency in high-grade machinery, which is partly due to~ trade union opposition. It is a curious thing that though Britain ha 3 a system of unemployment insurance, and America has not, it is the British workman, and not the American, who, when lahour-saving machinery is introduced, insists that no workers shall be displaced, or places restrictions on the use of these machines. Instances are given of direct "ca' canny" methods. Bricklayers lay an average of 500 bricks a day in England, but even in New York, where the building unions are powerful, union men lay over 1250 a day. It is stated that it is far more, common

in America than in England for wageearners to become shareholders in establishments in which they work. It is easy in a comparison like this to do Britain an injustice; there-is'always a temptation to compare the best on one side with the worst on the other. Nevertheless there is sufficient in these reports to make Englishmen think hard. Export trade is more important to Britain, than to the United States, but the F. 8.1, report warns England that American manufacturers will become more formidable competitors in the world's markets. It stands to reason that manufacturers who are not troubled by <union restrictions or individual "ca' canny," and whose men are not imhued with the idea that the employer is their natural enemy but are glad to invest money in the business, will have a gi .at advantage over rivals who have to contend against such restrictions and a general feeling of distrust and hatred.