INDUSTRIAL METHODS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 53, 31 August 1926, Page 9

INDUSTRIAL METHODS

THE EXAMPLE OF AMERICA

A NEW POLICY NEEDED.

(From Our Own Correspondent)

LONDON, 30th June.

Mr. Philip Snowden and Mr. Bertram Austin (who recently aroused great interest by his analysis of the causes of in dustrial prosperity in America) were speakers at a luncheon given by the American Chamber of Commerce in London. Both of them were of opinion that gome of the old British methods should be scrapped. _ Industrial unrest never conduced, to prosperity, said Mr. Austin, and employera would have to show a deeper sense of obligation and a greater desire for the well-being of their workers if we were to start once again on the road to success. Among the methods practised in the United States, one which was of vital importance in industry was that of promotion by merit and ability. That method could be adopted here. We could also adopt the American example of giving workers an incentive to do their best, to increase their output and their personal efficiency. He meant by this tho method of payment by results, which operated to a greater extent in the Unitel States than it did here.

Mr. Austin said lie was convinced that the only 'solution to our. trade depression was for the three great bodies in industry —the workers, the trade unions, and the employers—to co-operate in a new industrial policy. The time was now past when we could afford to shrug our shoulders at the tremendous revolution in industrial methods and practices which was leading to an eraof intense international competition which wo should shortly have to face.

Mr. Snowden said the methods which had been successful for the last hundred years had exhausted themselves, and it was necessary therefore that not merely employers of labour but workmen and all who were interested in industry should get together and examine existing conditions and try to arrive at some means by which, through hearty co-operation, a new era of industrial prosperity might be secured. He did not think any useful purpose could be served by trying to apportion the blame between employers and workmen for the deplorable conditions which existed to-day. Both sides undoubtedly had responsibility and a certain blame in the matter. It should be understood that employers and workmen and trade unions were largely under the influence of inherited ideas, traditions, and history. He would be inclined to think further that perhaps the main reason why the United States had been able to adopt with greater ease and more alacrity new ideas was the fact that it was a new country without a history and without inherited prejudices and hostilities.

TRADE UNION POLICY. Trade union methods, Mr. Snowden continued, many of them quite indefensible either on economic or moral grounds, could bo explained by the experience of workmen in the past, when they knew that the larger their output and the more energy they put forth, instead of bringing advantage to themselves, simply went to increase the profits of the employer. All this had got to be changed. They might be aware that he held certain ideas with regard to the future reorganisation of industry, but he saw no contradiction between these ideas and trying to secure at the present time the heartiest co-opera-tion between the partners in industry. Tho trade union idea in the past, and to a very great extent to-day, w;;s one of antagonism to the employers. They had to change that and to get workmen to realise that they were partners in the industry and that the depression of industry hit them probably more hardly than it hit the employers. There never could be more taken out of an industry than was produced by that industry. For this reason he would like to see trade union policy changed so that the unions would not be merely concerned, regardless of the condition of industry, to get the highest possible wage they could screw out of the industry, but would help to make industry thoroughly efficient, so that the means would be there out of which the highest wages could be paid. 85, Fleet street.