The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Echo. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1927. THE AMERICAN WORKER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 208, 3 September 1927, Page 8

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

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1927. THE AMERICAN WORKER.

Tor the eavae that lack* auittanei. For the wrong that need* For the future in the And the good that we eon do.

The delegation of eight Australians—four representing Capital, four Labour—which recently visited the United States collected a great deal of valuable information bearing ou American industrial conditions. But the majority of the members of the delegation seem to have reached the conclusion that America has little to teach Australia that would benefit her workers, and this view is set forth clearly and forcibly in the account of the mission, "An Australian Looks at America" (Cornstalk Publishing Company), since written by Mr. H. G. Adam, of the Melbourne "Herald," who accompanied the delegates on behalf of a number of Australian newspapers.

One of the most interesting facts that struck Mr. Adam in the early stages of his visit was the relative unimportance and weakness of unionism in the United States. Even the few unions that are well organised have apparently no desire to use their strength to better the position of other crafts and trades, and they have no clear-cut policy for the advancement of the wage-earners in general. The chief reason for the slow growth and the comparative impotence of unionism is, of course, the presence of enormous numbers of ignorant, illiterate foreigners, accustomed to a low standard of living, whom it is impossible to organise and who will take work for what they can get. Now it happens that "mass" production—the large scale production on which the Americans have specialised—does not require highly-skilled workers. For most of the processes employed in American production, Mr. Adam tells us, "the worker needs no trade and no skill."

This somewhat enigmatic judgment is made clearer by an impressive description of the methods of "mass" production. To each man is allotted the single task to be repeated an indefinite number of times through the day, the week, and the year. To fix the bolt, tb tap the rivet, to drive the nail, which falls at regular intervals to his share in the complex work of mechanical construction, the worker needs little skill, and this can be acquired with but little preliminary training. But once the system of "mass" production is established, its profits are so enormous that it becomes worth the employer's while to pay an unskilled man high wages so as to persuade him "to screw the same kind of nut on the same kind of bolt in the same position for 50 hours for life," and to give him other benefits.

The important question therefore arises whether it might not benefit Australia to imitate the American system of "mass" production and thus enable wages, as well as profits, to rise rapidly. Mr. Adam, in reply, points out first that such methods as Mr. Ford uses—involving the installation of expensive automatic machinery on a gigantic scale —can be profitable only when the industry is supplying a very large market from whieh competition is virtually excluded. Further, Mr. Adam, after an extensive investigation, decided that the boasted "high wages" earned by the American worker are largely mythical. To begin with, the high rates represent "only a few peaks on the flat level plain of the bare living wage." Then, as nearly all wages are paid on an output basis, the important question is how many days and weeks in the year are the highly-paid workers on full time? Then, again, the cost of living is extremely high in most American cities and, taking everything into account, Mr. Adam considers that in regard to real wages the Australian wage-earner is better off than the American. As to the dehumanising effects of mechanical labour carried on for long periods under the control of automatic machinery, Mr. Adam has much to say. On the whole", Mr. Adam's record of his American trip is a singularly impartial and illuminating little book, and it certainly confirms the view that Australia has less to learn from America on the subject of industrial welfare than some people suppose.