The Forty-hour Week

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 149, 19 March 1936, Page 11

The Forty-hour Week

Sir, —Upon the grounds of humanitarianism and of national health and efficiency, it is desirable that people, particularly those engaged in arduous or monotonous work, should not be compelled to work for more than 40 hours a week. Even -10 hours is, in many cases, too long. But so long as we view the matter from an orthodox outlook, we shall not find a solution to our difficulties. The Welfare League takes such a view, and its recent letter (March 17), is a fair enough expression of the orthodox outlook. However, what the league and so many others have yet to find out is that the present industrial, commercial aud financial systems are all endeavouring to achieve the impossible. They are working upon am equation which is false from every sound conception of truth. Morally, mathematically, physically, spiritually, the whole equation is misconceived. Not so long ago, his Majesty the King, Edward VIII, when Prince of Wales, said "that if all the employable labour in the world were employed for a reasonable number of hours per week, the whole population would have at its command a. volume of commodities and services sufficient to provide standards of life for all far above those conceived in the rosiest dreams of the most ardent social reformer. The problem is one of distribution." The statement is absolutely true. Obviously, therefore, our present methods of distribution must bo at fault; and, of course, they are. Mr. Montague Norman spoke on behalf of all bankers, economists and financiers, when he confessed himself to be tilled with humility and ignorance. As Governor of the Bank of England the services of all such people were at his disposal—yet he was in despair. He and his kind cannot help us. The solution of the .problem is simple—almost too simple for people, saturated with the sophistry of modern finance, to grasp. If people will but iix their thoughts directly upon the material distribution of things aud services, even upon a basis of extreme inequality, they will find quite a simple method of making symbolic distribution in terms of money paid directly into tbe hands of those consumers who are deemed to be worthy of not being starved of the power of life. Among other things, existing banks and their personnel will he employed to record- consumer-credit incomes, and its discharge, by means of an extension of the cheque system. The solution makes even a 30-hour week a perfectly practicable proposition, without. in the least, affecting our overseas trade, obligations, or relationships. Most obviously, his Majesty bad this fact in mind when he made the statement quoted above. Why not help our new Government to make our King’s words come true? —I am, etc., P. B. FITZHERBEBT. Wellington, March 17.