DEARTH OF SKILLED LABOUR

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22135, 3 July 1937, Page 20

DEARTH OF SKILLED LABOUR

TO THE EDITOB Of THE PEESS. Sir,—At this late hour of the day. when much unremediable evil has been done to the youth of this country during these last six years, now that trade is brisk, employers are concerned at the prospective and imminent danger of a dearth of skilled labour. Who is to blame for this deplorable state of things? “Lack of sympathy by the trade unions towards the unemployed youths” is the opinion of the president of the Chamber of Commerce. I propound a truer reason for their attitude, and that is “The law of self-pres"rvation.’ - If there were an unlimited supply of apprentices in th's machine age, they would displace fully competent tradesmen. Boys would take the place of fathers and do them out of their job. Emoloyers have shirked their responsibilities to train their apprentices efficiently, and now expect them to devote all their spare

time evenings, and at the public expense, to fit themselves to become expert profit-producers in the shortest time possible. It is suggested that they be compelled to attend the evening classes for that purpose. There is to be no 40-hour week restriction in their case. While we are comfortably seated at our own fireside, or at the theatre enjoying ourselves, they are to plough through cold and wet nights and put in at least 10 extra hours a week without extra remuneration! No wonder the youth of to-day are looking for some avenue of escape from this toilsome drudgery, which at its best will, if they are lucky, enable them to exist on the very verge of the precipice of want. At 40, they will be fit for the scrap-heap; their i natural quickness and skill will have reached its peak; they -will "be dis- ) carded as too costly to produce the maximum oi profits. One man and a machine can produce to-d"y what it took 10 men to produce 10 years ago. If production by the aid of the machine makes proportionately the same progress in the next 20 years, what wi 1 ! happen to these youths who are such an exasnerating care at the moment? To leave this acute question in the hands of the Chamber of Commerce is to court serious disaster. —Yours, etc., DOUBLE XX. July 2, 1937.