RESTRICTION OF OUTPUT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 803, 28 April 1910, Page 9

RESTRICTION OF OUTPUT.

Sir, —As a worker . in an organised trade, permit mo to answer your sweeping assertions in your leading article of April 25 regarding- "Restriction of Output!" I can well understand your attitude for the poor employer, because as ail employer you speak feelingly. Your article is based on what an employer wrote in the

"OtaEO Daily Times." wliero it is. stated "that workers rarely give a fair day's work for a fair day's pay." Jie'foro upholding sucli a statement in your article, would it not bo better to consider what a fair day's work is ? Perhaps this self-same employer was suffering 'front a bad attack of liver, or ho may be ono of the largo band of employers who think they can do twice its much as any employee, oils it that lie has risen from the ranks, and remembers the time when tho boss spoke in the self-same way?

However, to get back to the argument, You state one Labour secretary

eaul ho know of no caso where tho union advised members bo go slow, but you say it is not .neccssary for an "order" to couio from tho union. "'When you speak of an order coming from a union,- I consider it a direct slight on unionists, who aro the ones who constitute a union, having a vote on all. questions to the government of their own aft'airSj and banded togothcr for their own good, and copied by tho employers, who founded tho • Employers' Association. :

To get to the wage question. Without a doubt'there are some hardly as good as their fellow-workers, but when you Eay the employer is without the means to pay higher wages to his high-grade men, that is going a bit too far. You ought to know tho Arbitration Court fixes the minimum wage, but in the employer's mind it becomes the maximum, so ho thinks the worker is worth tho minimum only when ho is tho high-grado man, but the lower grade ought only to expect, what' tho employer thinks ho is worth. It is in tho employer's hands to raiso tho minimum of the high-grado worker, but 1 am afraid there is no high-grado worker in tho employer's mind, but only still lowering the present minimum. Trusting you will bo converted to the workers' standpoint.—l am, otc., . . . UNIONIST. ,

Sir—Your leader dealing with restriction of output,, ay being in soino obscure manlier attributable to trades union domination, is absolute; nonsense, particularly '. in New Zealand, where 'tradia unionism means little' or nothing. • • Tho employer who declares "there is a'.tendency to .restrict, the output in various industries" is giving an airing;', to. an old lie, and it. is time it was'iiailed to the countor as a counterfeit of truth. Let us give the words a twist, and say, from, a trades unionist point of 'vie\v, there is' a tendency amongst'employers to degrade craftsmanship to the very-lowest level. That good.workmanship.is not wanted; that tils man who serves his employer's interest's, tho maii who can jerry, and botoh, and most successfully deceive the clerk of works and Government inspector. How does' that sound, and how near, is it.to' the truth?.' Much closer indeed,-:as I. could afford ample proof, than is the,, contrary assertion. , The. interest of an 'employer; apart from all 'Other things, is "profit"; all else is

subservient' to that object. Often onotigh you cannot get a good job done even by paying for : is only affording another opportunity to got more profit. It was a bold man. who asserted at a l'etono church the other evening: "Wo all live, by thieving 'now," and what a reflection it casts on!our , modr em business morality. A : workman wlw pilfers his employer's material is undoubtedly a thief,. but whaV is the employee who robs his omployer and his workmen, by getting aiVay from a job half ' done. It is. well known con-' tractors' profits (commercial' as well as building) are based on what tho Contractor is~ not going to do.. The specification may. state oho of sand and one of .cement, but the soul of'a workman can be bought for sixpence a day extra, and six of sand and one of cement will result. I uso this ''illustration figuratively of the common practice in contracts. There is more to say on.. this mattor than can be drafted in a short lettor, particularly on the bonus system, and- ■; hustle system, :wlhch is _ brutalism ; developed - into a science. .In the main I think,.Jack is as good as his master, in the moral aspect of business . methods and trades unionism-; to-day is' the last shred of a system that-had for its object the bond of fellowship between craftsmen, to maintain the : honour, privileges, and future advancement of their respective trades. -Unfortunately, the -tendency of modern progress is dead against it. —I urn, etc.," BEN ADHEM. Petone. ;[The.views,..of our correspondents, stated' above, oil this important subject are of- interest. "Unionist" is wrong in assuming that -we made any "sweeping assertions"; as to tho attitude of trades unionism. ..We merely pointod put that tW evidence available Vr'oht : in- the direction of, indicating that the output of labour, showed a downward tendency. "Ben AdliemV' counter, charge is, wo believe, not without : foundation., Thero' 1 aie employers, who are content to turn out inferior, work. It is doubtful, however, whether in the long-run it pays. The subject is one of great importance, and if it is' discussed freely, hut without undue heat, some good, may result.]