SPEEDING UP

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 142, 17 June 1914, Page 3

SPEEDING UP

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— Allow me to 'answer your , correspondent, ''Widewclt.',' I thought that you wpi'e having a 'whack at the poor Old .shoemaker. How .was I to know ? I, who have' been with my head down this twenty-tiVe years] or' more,' pulling over the toe, and whacking rivets into soles, until my head has become .as thick as some of the leather 1 have been banging, trying, to "earn 'a' living 'for, myself 1 and wife and family. • I say,, ' how was 1 to know that you were really trying to become my friend, and' trying to' get'someone to give some -lig.il t on the 'subject .of bootmaking, ■ and to* learn the whys and the wherefores? ''So- 1 took up -the pen to try and ' defend >my mates from the slUr-castupon theni'frorii one who holds such a<high position in this country,' and who cannot; havp 'the '"least idea about the matter. /'W'idew'elt'.' asks s mauy pertinent "question's ,• '.T 'cannot ' answer ■ all of them. But- £ will answer one or two. The, first: Surely ''WideVvelt" you would'" not take Mr. Fisher as an'authority On any' such' subject. Of the speed* ing-upi; I seem to have • thoroughly convinced .you.- The next, question is: What benefit" doesi'the -worker get thiough the duty< on- the •" boots? 'I say none, ' or .at least 'nothing to what* he .should get. The next > question : • Is he getting -ialJ . the benefits '.he should ? x I say no. ' Are the people of -New -.Zealand being pervjised for, the benefit of .the <manufacturei"and his machines? Undoubtedly, yes. No, £2>165.-is not a very high' wage, but I might as well tell "\Videwelt" that if he took the- whole -of ,. New Zealand he would find ' what with lost time, etc., that a.. mans wage would' not average thirty-five shillings. per week. A 'great wage 'to bring up a family -and keep a^ wife' on, , is it not, dear "Widewelt"? Yes, tjie are. using exactly the same machines 'as they use in" America. England, .arid efcewhere. "Widewelt" wants to know how is it America, after using New Zealand leather, paying • freight and . tanning, /can seiid it back to.us.as a finished product.' I can only giv'et my opinion, that America, with, her usual graft, wants to capture New Zealand's mniket/and so make the ,home buyer pay for it- as wo do our beef and mutton. ,1 might ask "Widewelt" : How, do we send our best beef and mutton to England and sell it cheaper there than we do here? Is the American worker sweated? Some places, yes; in others, no. Wherever men understand unionism and there are strong unions, men work under better conditions than we do here. But wherever there are non-union shops, it is there where thereis sweated labour. Where we do' have a slight pull is m the hours. In Ameiicii they work B£, to 9 hours a day ; we work Bto 8| hours ' But then '.the Arbitration Court Judge told us that we would have to go back to 9£ hours a, d=>y. if we wanted more wages. In American .boot factories every man is a .working bee, a there are no useless hangers-on : that is where wo lose. I think I pointed out that some years back the owners of bootfactories personally superintended their own work, and a working foreman 'gave the work out. The men were their own masters in a sense; that is they made what they could earn and had no_ one to carry on .their backs, and they did not' have a man to stand over them watching them like a cal. We want to ,go back to "the simple life in boot factories,' as well as in every other branch., of life's .work. Let the boot manufacturers be their own managers instead of being simply dividend drawers. Let us do.away with all unnecessary highsalaried so-called managers (whose salaries have to come out of the cost of production,'if it, does not add to the cost of it), and then men would not have to be driven and their wages cut down so that the boss will have more prdfit. Yes, the. time will come when the boss will have to' do with, less profit. There are many other irritating things that will have to be done away with and stopped. — I am, etc., ONLY A COMMON BLUCHER. ' 14th June, 1914. •