YOUTH AND BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 167, 18 July 1938, Page 6

YOUTH AND BUSINESS.

The new clerical workers' award is another example of/ the extreme rigidity of the system which the Arbitration Courts, under the authority and with the encouragement of the Labour Government, are establishing in practically every non-primary occupation in the Dominion. A boy entering employment as a clerk must be paid 15/ a week if he is under 16. Thereafter he 'will receive, automatically, an increase in wage half-yearly for five, year*, and then yearly until £5 10/. Will such a boy ever have reason to refleet upon the nature of the source of his wag 4? Will he ever be encouraged to realise that his wage, his employer's income, the dividends of the shareholders and a- substantial part of the Government's taxation revenue are all derived from the profits of business, and that these profits do not increase automatically? Will he realise that the continuance of the business in which he is working depends upon the success of its proprietors and executives — upon their skill, foresight, resource and willingness to take risks t Perhaps he will at some point reflect on these facts, but if he does his'conclusion may well be that he will be, better off as an employee. But without able leadership a business will fail, and its failure will encompass both employees and employers. Will the Court-controlled conditions nnder which .youthe spend their early years at work promote the development of those personal attributes which are essential to successful business leadership? Few older people, remembering their own experience, will answer that question affirmatively.