GOLDEN MOMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 15

GOLDEN MOMENTS

NOT IN "SPAKE TIME"

LEISURE IS NOT TREASURE

A GOSPEL Of WORK

..No decent nit and no decent thought was (v«r Umiuil cut in anybody's spare, tlmu.— 'Uougliis Jcrrold.) Iv "The Listener," Sir. Douglas Jor.rold and Professor 11. Levy agrco tiiut science has ' time-shortened and has cheapened production. They agree that, iis a result, there arc more articles, suid there is also inoro spare time (leisure). But they disagree as to how the- excess of articles and of human time is to be divided among mankind. And they disagree as to the valuo and uses of leisure. SCIENCE AND HUMAN TIME. It has been suggested that if 100 men plus science can produce twice as many commodities as were produced by 100 men minus science, and if tho price of each commodity wcro halved, and if the popular consumption of these commodities wcro thus doubled, £hen things could go on as before, with full employment. But where such cannot be done —or is not done —it has also been suggested that price and consumption of commodities be left as they are, and that the 100 men (and science) work half-time. In that case, instead of the commodities reaching twice as many •.onsumcra as before, the hundred workers would have twice as much leisure as before. Again, seeing that in practice things do not proportion themselves out in such a clean-cut manner as tho abovo proposals suggest, thero are people who would compromise between tho two suggestions, giving something to the consumer (in price), and something to the worker (in leisure) —and hoping that tho profit-maker would have no insuperable objections. Consumption, wage, profit, leisure arc all points in such production-planning. Professor Levy is for public planning — indeed, for Socialism —and M?. Jerrold is for privato enterprise. HOW TO DIVIDE NEW BENEFITS. At one stage of tho argument Professor Lovy summed up the issue thus: "You see, we've agreed that there is n net benefit from tho application of leienee to industry, haven't wef It fa only a. question of how we take that net benefit. Are wo to aim at a big increase iv leisure and a comparatively sirfall increase in our consumption of goods, or lire we to aim at a big increase in our consumption of goods, and a comparatively small increase or no increase in our,leisure, or a compromise between them? At tho present moment we aim at nothing at all. We just muddle along." Mr. Douglas Jerrold: "But my point is this, if wo are to get out of the present mess we have got to realise that we can only get tho benefits of science i tho form of increased goods and not in tho form of increased' leisure. To put it plainly, not shorter hours, but> more food," more clothes, better houses ,—more wireless, moro gramophone, if yon like.'' Professor Levy: "I suppose you'll force us' to go on consuming until we bust. Every Eskimo will have to have his own Rolls-Royce, and no time to use it. That's what you call a civilised life, is it? I'm thinking of a Boeicly wheie leisure will be treasured, and mere grubbing for goods despised. When I talk of progress and of tho standard of,life going up, I'm thinking of a substantial increase of leisure as well as, say, an occasional new wireless set. ... I look forward to a' big incrcaso in leisure, brought about by the steady reduction of essential work." • -Mr; Douglas ( Jerrold:, "1 see. ■ You want' a stato Of society where your Eskimo has time to run a Rolls-Royce, because you have prevented him from making one." ILL-DISTRIBUTED LEISURE. Professor Levy: "I suppose that's a fair come-back on what I said just now, but it doesn't, seem, to mo really to. make sense! Science, is already producing goods and leisure in plenty. One of the troublos is that leisuro is being abominably distributed by' tho only people who "at present have got the chance to distribute it—the industrial magnate, tha big boss, if you like. By dumping it all on one class he saves ■wages." Mr. Douglas Jerrold: "I don't agrco with a word of that, and I only want to ask ono question at this point. When you say that science is producing leisuro but1 that leisuro is badly distributed, I suppose you are thinking of tho unemployed?" Professor, Levy: "Yes. Look at the unemployment among tho working classes, and then look at tho millions doing a 48-hour week, and some work'ng overtimo as well. It is grotesque— Mich a division. Science has helped to creato their enforced leisure, but it has no control over its distribution. Science, has given us automatic paint-sprayers, for oxamplc, instead of individual craftsmen; pneumatic drills instead of huge gangs of labourers; telephones in place of innumerable messengers, and then automatic' telephones to rcplaco tho operators; an adding machine and a typewriter, say, for half v dozen clerks. This is happening both nationally and internationally." CAN- IDLENESS BE DECENT? In tho course of further argument, Mr. Jerrold elaborated tho case that priva-to enterprise, if not handicapped by 'taxation and by politicians, would solve the economic upset with justice (but not necessarily with leisure) to averybody. Professor Levy said that private capitalism was perpetuating unemployment and was making everything worse, but, "under a Socialist regime," the displacement of labour resulting from the application of science to industry "can^ certamly bo inado temporary by a deliberate and controlled redistribution of work." Tho present form of private enterprise must be destroyed before there, could be a sensible distribution of production-benefits and of leisure. "Then we shall really have spare time for our hobbies, for creative work of all'sorts, whether it is the craftsman turning out a work of art, tho philosopher exploring new Utopias, or tho adult returning to school." Mr. Douglas Jerrold: "Spare time for our hobbies! That all sounds very nice, but don't you realise that no decent nrt, no' decent thought was ever turned out in anybody ?s spare Tho greatest curse or' our own x age is tho spato of loose thinking by people who occupy their spare tinio in telling other people how to run their business."