The Press. FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1910. RESTRICTION OF OUTPUT.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13714, 22 April 1910, Page 6

The Press. FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1910. RESTRICTION OF OUTPUT.

In the course .of a letter to the "Otago " Daily Times,-* an employer refers to a phase of the industrial situation which has heen a source of dissatisfaction to many of his class, and must sooner or later have a serious effect upon the welfare of New Zealand industries. "There is," he says, "a grow"ing tendency on the part of the •"workers throughout the Dominion to "restrict th_ output of tbe various in- " dustries in which they may be em-

"ployed, and it is a well-known fact "that they rarely give a fair day's " work for a. fair day's pay." The latter statement is, wo believe, too sweeping, but that restriction of output is practised, either deliberately or unconsciously, by many workers in Sew Zealand, is undoubted. There are probably few employers who have not experienced it; there Are not a few workers who would admit it, and would seek to justify their action by claiming that they are entitled to do so much work as in their estimation they are paid for, and no more. There can be little doubt that to some degree this state of things is due to the working of tho Conciliation and Arbitration Act. The employer, compelled, perhaps, to pay more to naturally slow and inefficient workers than their labour is really worth, cannot afford to reward adequately those who are naturally efficient and energetic, and the latter, intentionally or otherwise, adjust their work to their remuneration, with tho result that the average output tends to be levelled down to the standard of the inferior workers. Colonel Weinstock, the special Labour Commissioner from California, who visited New Zealand last year, quotes in his published report our Government's exports as showing a diminished efficiency on the part of the New Zealand worker of about 12 per cent, during the last few years, this being accompanied by an average increase in wages varying from 19 to 29 per cent. Colonel Weinstock goes on to say that if New Zealand was the only country in the world where the efficiency of tho worker had diminished, the condition might be laid at the doors of the Act. But he declares that it is a universal complaint throughout Europe, and that even the United States are not free from it. "If there is a cry to 'go " slow' among the New Zealand workers •'it i 3 done quietly and secretly, ••' vharcas in Europe the cry of dimin'•ishing output is shouted, so to speak, '- from the house-tops." He finds the cause in Socialism, for wherever the Socialistic creed has made itself felt, there it is proclaimed "that it is a " crime against Labour for tho worker "to put forth his best." The Socialist, according to Colonel Weinstock, urges the wage-earner to practise a diminishing output, in. the belief that this would provide more work for more hands, and because the adoption of the practice wquld reduce the profits of capital, and thus hasten the day "when '•'capital will be wiped out and Social- " ism placed in the saddle." "We are assured, in conclusion, that wherever a diminishing output is met with in New Zealand, "it can far more readily be "traced to the preachments of such "Socialists as have found their way to ■'New Zealand than to any influence "of the Act." So shrewd and clearsighted an observer as Dr. Victor Clark, who visited New Zealand as a Labour Commissioner on behalf of the American Government some six years ago, arrived at the same conclusion as to the part played by Socialism in reducing the efficiency and industry of tbe workers. "Socialist theories," he says in his book, "The Labour Movement in "Australasia," "may be gradually and " imperceptibly changing the substra- " turn of popular sentiment and morals. " These theories set up a new standard "of property right. Their realisation " would withdraw the motive for thrift "and accumulation. They temper the " incentive to industry. ". . . They "foster among thoughtless men an im- " pression that work is in itself an "evil." The spread of these theories in New Zealand, in so far as they induce a lessened output, would hare more serious consequences for the workers than elsewhere, for in ,tho Dominion wages are as a rule higher and the working <Jay is undoubtedly shorter than elsewhere, and employers, having to meet competition from countries where labour works longer hours for less money than in New Zealand, can only do so, successfully if the workers give them a good day's work. .The idea that by doing as little as he-can the worker is benefiting himself and his class is quite a fallacy. In the long run the practice must react on him— industries will die and production diminish, and tbe first sufferers will be those who imagine that by destroying capitalism they would help to create a heaven on earth for themselves.