"GOING SLOW."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 264, 31 July 1908, Page 7

"GOING SLOW."

. REMARKABLE FIGURES. FALLING OFF IN EFFICIENCY. - r A ; SERIOUS ASPECT OF THE LABOUR PROBLEM. (Br TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT) ■i Christchurch, July, 30. Speaking at the annual meeting of • tlio Employers' Association Mr.'G. T. Booth, head of tho-firm of Booth and M'Donald, implement inakors, said strikes-might'bo made illegal and the definition of a striko mado wide enoughto apparently cover tho whple ground, and aiders and abettors might bo included; but tliat was not tho . end of tho matter. Workmen did not need to, striko in any legal sense. They could exert all the: prossuro they • u anted to oxertYw employers without doing anything of tho They had a plan of their, had bcon-'well understood and worked for centuries which was perfectly effectivo,; and .would -bo .effective, ho matter what law'might bo in existenco; and that was the >plan of "going slow.' " \ ■ He would quote figures from the official statistics to show how that plan worked in New Zealand now. Tho figures related to a certain trado which lie would npt mention,' but which was by no means an unimportant part of • tho industrial organisation-of the Dominion. In 1901-the hands- employed in the trado. numbered '4176, the horse-powor ' used was 1937, tho amount'invested in land, buildings, . and plant was £455,621,' the value of'material used was £495,599/ paid in wages £361,150, valuo of. total product-£1 product ■ per "man £254 '7s. 6d. For tho year i960 the . following,increases had,taken place:—Hands 'employed; 553, horse-power 986,' capital invested in land, buildings - and plant £208,000, material . used £15,000, wages paid. £53,411. The increase in the output should havo boon £140,669 with tho additional hands employed; but if there were included Jthe increaso in the amount paid iu in the horse-p'owcr, and 'the amount ' of'capital invested, - the* increase iri'product should; havo amounted to £176,485. They • would hardly believe him, lie thought, when he told . them that tlio actual increase in tho product in -the year 1905 as compared with 1901 was.only £i 5,310.1 Tho product per man fell as between 1901 and 1905 from £254 7. 6d. to £224 17s/3d., a falling off in efficiency of ' . ■ P? T cent. But' nearly the whole increase . in-,the .value, of the .product was accounted for by. the increased amount of material used. So .that .the extra labour and the extra capital- invested : yielded the employers of the trade the'magnificent 'sum of £440. .It was hardly too' much to say that for all that expenditure.,of time and money, - and the, labour of 553 men, tho country gained nothing: '.- r-That happened to be a trade not so much harassed by labour conditions/as others. Nor. was;it a case'of slackness.injtrado, but'rather the reverse, "for 'that r particular trade .was fairly active at .the; ■time. The value of im- . however, .had increased by: £234,184, while the value of the local product had increased by only £15,310. -. If those figures had any meaning- at'all,.it surely, was that artificial regulations applied to that particular industry had, had the effect of choking, it and driving the trade into the hands of foreigners. ■/ The illustration, he be-, lieved, might be multiplied'by : as many industries as there were in the country. It 'was quite sufficient to;show- ; the Government wefe on the wrong track in trying to. control -, industry, by State regulation. By all' means let there bo ; rcgulations that, would ensiire f th'e factories being sanitary, and that women-and-children, who were, perhaps, unable to look after themselves, should be.properly protected, but if. one set to work to coddle, adult men,, even by ..the: establishing of artificial minimum wage rates, or by aiiy other means which tended to decrease the .'incentive to exertion, it must eventually demoralise them and, reduce their industrial efficiency. Ho .wis'not going'to say that the arbitration sys-tem!-jvas.. solely, .to blame for that''.state of- . affairs, but in so far as Ht embodied the prin--7 fciple that'work was not a thing that a man should engage in cheerfully and manfully, but' that it was a hateful necessity upon him for his sins, which was not only justifiable for a man to dodge but creditable to him;to do so; if it implied that'the mantle of, State sanction was,to be"thrown over meanness, selfishnessj and'laziness, and 'weakness! a ! premium put on inefficiency—then' the arbitration system was so .far to blame.. . ; >-' .