WHERE AMERICA LEADS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 113, 9 November 1921, Page 3

WHERE AMERICA LEADS

BRITISH WORKERS' MISSION

SOME FUNDAMENTAL DIF- • FERENCES.

In the absence of Viscount Burniiam, joint president of the Industrial League and Council, Mr. G. H. Roberts, M.P., took the chair at a gathering in Jijly in London, at the Holbom Restaurant at a complimentary dinner of employers and employed ,jto Mr. E. J. P.- Benn and Mr. F. Elliott on their return, from the United States of America. They- went to that country to investigate' the economic conditions there (says ihe Daily Telegraph), and to create an entente between the Industrial League, and Council in England and the National Civic Federation in America. Mr. E. J. P. Benn said he was in America five weeks—just long enough, to appreciate that fifty years would be insufficient to grasp all that America had to teach one. But upon one point he could he definite without any qualification; the need for the closest understanding between the English-speaking peoples as the means of saving the world for civilisation was recognised by the Americans with a depth of conviction which rivalled, if it did not excel,, our own. He confessed that he had returned a more confirmed individualist than when he set out. Could they imagine a land of 110,000,000 civilise^ persons without a political Labour Party; a land in which the workers, who had never heard the words "ca' canny," regarded restriction of output as a mythical madness? The policy which was known here ast "9d for 4d" was there expressed as "nothing for nothing." The differences between ourselves and our American friends in these industrial questions were so fundamental that little use could come from the discussion of matters of detail.' ,That veteran leader of American Labour, Mr. Sam, Gompers, claimed that so far from being fifty years behind England in matters of labour organisation, America was- 100 years ahead. Ec claimed that to estimate the success of a Labour movement one must not judge by the violence of its political programme; a more effective test was to go to the homes of the people. Mr. Gompers pointed with pride to1 the 6,000,000 working-class homes which were either completely or partially owned by their workmen occupants; to the 12,000,000 automobiles among 110,000,000 people; and to the 15,000,000 owners of shares or other forms'of property which existed in that wonderful country. ■ America., like the rest of the world, was having her revolution, but there it was taking the form of a transference of large blocks' of industrial capital into the hands of the workers in industry. The most striking example was the Ford Works, where-the workmen owned no less than 6,600,000 dollars' worth of the company's stock. The force of this movement was further shown by th& fact that savings banks at street corners were more numerous in America than publichouses at street corners here., Mr. Gompers claimed that he was leading the only constructive Labour movement in-' the world. , , . AS AMERICA SEES US. The whole force of public opinion in America, said Mr. Benn, was directed to teaching its people how to push, whilst here it seemed to be concerned to teach its people how to lean. Having expressed the view that the vast accumulation of wealth in the U.S.A. would not flow to Europe as it should do until Americana, regarded Europe a? a safe place for th© investment of money, he said that an American senator told him that America, looked with some apprehension on the light-hearted way in y/hich we appeared to be conducting great and novel i economic experiments, particularly in the matter of legislative , enactments. This senator gave the following list of British inconsistencies :—(1) ' Our demand for German indemnities, and our refusal to take German goods; ; .(2) our need for industrial activity, and our taxation, which, to an American, spelt nothing but industrial murder—(cheers) —(3) our depleted wealth, and-our bragging of a higher standard of living; (4) our centuries of economic experience, arj4* our flippant economic legislation, whicrr appeared to be enacted and repealedwith equal regularity and levity; (5) our surrender to lassitude,, tb.6 natural result of the war, and our self-infliction of doles and dope which, must inevitably accentuate the trouble. In Chicago, proceeded Air. Benn, he heard a speaker tell a. brotherhood meeting of 2500 men that "no power in heaven or in hell can prevent America from assuming the leader : ship of mankind." "I, am, here to say thai ir true," said Mr. Benri, "if we ar« going on ip the way wu have followed during the past couple of years. But if we can succeed in taking advantage of the one thing we have which America has not—the one thing which has given us the trade unions and other blessings;, if we take advantage of our genius for organisation, and turr it to constructive instead1 of destructive purposes-, them America, can do all the leading of mankind she likes; she will, have to come here to learn how to do it." American ■yages were, roughly, two and: a half times those earned in this country, but it was erroneous to suppose that American labour costs were dear. American labom, as a cost factor in production,was among the cheapest in the world. He -watched, a_ 'mam. earning,7s 6d per hour tending three. machines, which in this country would each have required a minder amd a labour*! ■to care for. If itj were . true that. we had to fa.cc the. consequences pf cheap German labour, we had also to face the good, healthy, straightforward competition p* efficient, hard-working, economic American labour. MEANING OP "THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR." The theory th&t America, was the land of the "Almighty Dollar" 'was true, but all depended upon what one meant by the dollar 1 The impression, of Americans as a grasping, materialistic crowd of moneymakers . was altogether beside the mark. We understood neither America nor the dollar. Whilst we grovelled in the depths of sophistry, getting moire and more miserable as we failed to find the philosophers ston« in the sha,pe of some mystic new system, the streets of America were thronged- with haippy, optimistic- people who talked a great deal about dollars, but more about service. Most mysterious of ; all, one found the two words used in, association. The American, being a sound economist, recognised that the proper measure of service was.not that put upon'it by theman who rendered it, but the measure calculated by the one who received it. (Cheers.) The only measure which the receiver of service could use was thedollar, which explained; America's attachment to it. The underlying inspiration, the; thing' which gave the cheery life which characterised that wonderful people, was not the dollar, but service. The Declaration of Independence gave to the American citizen the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; he found happiness, satisfaction, self-respect, and independence in doing good and useful work; in rendering service., *

Mr.. F. Elliott said the deepest iml>r.ession that he formed of America was tha.t. it was a nation of capitalists. The country's -vtkiMi w,-» ramtlly passing from the hands of th? big people into the hands of the niiinv, and that trans, ference was binn? welcomed by the^ big leadens o' industry, who saw in % it a bulwark for civic s-ÜbiHtv X.nd industrial ' stability. Wh«n referring to fche pucking houses in Chicago, he said tjia*

Swift's had 40,000 shareholder*, which included H,OOO employees. The shareholding averaged thirty-seven shares per individual, and it would require 900 shareholders to pool 51 per cent. of stock and exercise control. In some firms bonds were purchased on the instalment plan, a system that would be good in this country. The standard of living and dress was higher amon| the workers in America. In Detroit there was one motor-car to ten inhabitants. Few signs of poverty were to be seen. Prohibition seemed to have been a good thing; it was certainly better to have the savings bank at the corner of the street instead of the publichouse. ■ (Hear, hear.) He did not know whether it was due to prohibition, but America seemed to have passed through her industrial crisis with comparatively little trouble in the way of resentment, or poverty, or strikes. They had accepted wages "cuts" in a philosophical fashion. While he was there the steelworkers' wages were cut by 20 per cent. They studied, and understood economics in America. Rather than see the .works of the American* Manganese Company— which supported thousands of people— closed, the workpeople and directors met, and there was a-voluntary offer to accept a cut of 40 per. cent, in wages^ The directors agreed to that, and in return they agreed to reduce the rents of the houses in which the workers lived by, 40 per cent. Then .:. the shopkeepers agreed to reduce the prices of necessities. a most practical effort at co-operation in bringing down prices. (Hear, hear.) They had no oldrage pensions and unemployment schemes. The Secretary of State for Laboui told him and his colleague that they thought the people of England were being pauperised by their methods of social; reform. The American worker said, " Give me the highest possible wa-ges, and in return I will give you the highest possible output and iook after my own old-age pension." The American was no more enamoured of the bureaucrat than we were in England. He had a slogan, which Mr: Hoover invented, "Less Government in business arid more business in Government."