THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 17792, 14 October 1921, Page 7

THE LABOR MOVEMENT

[By Vetkrak.] Brief contributions on matters with relerence. to the Labor Movement arc tnvited. TR.AININQ APPRENTICES. Mi- W. ,T. Pearce, writing in the ‘Decorators and Painters’ Magazine,’ contends that the percentage of really good journeymen is not eri large as it was when even- cmplovcr had a practical knowledge of his trade ami taught his apprentices himself. That, was l-elore the days of tho general contractor. -Hr Pearce contends that only practical tradesmen should , be allowed to lake apprentices. He says ■ that the present system of apprenticeship is unwholesome and detrimental to the interests of the workers. In spite of technical schools, tho best and only practical training in obtained hy working at the trade in the best shops, Tho system by which all classes of employers ir.r.n an equal percentage of the rating generation is bad—wholly and unmistakcably bad. The following illustration from real life iri given:—“A man who has for years been a. technical teacher, and who holds the highest awards of the City and Guilds —a. man who is not only a good practical din orator, but an artist who can paint a passable picture—is in business on his own, and has ceased to leach in the technical schools 'on account of tho insufficient remuneration, offered, which is less than a good worker can earn at (he trade. He has no ambition to run a large business, but docs only the best special work for customers who appreciate his skill at a true value. He therefore dues not employ more than three workmen, who are regularly employed on the very best work, and are as capable of teaching a boy the trad? as he is. This number of men entitles him to employ ami teach only one apprentice. whereas ho could be heller employed in teaching half n dozen, to the great ad- | vantage, of the next generation. In the 1 same town is a man who never served a i day at the trade, and who employs some ] 200 painters of a kind, his work being mainly for rough painting of public bridges, stations, gasworks, etc. This man is permitted bv the union rides to have, several apprentices, not- one of whom can possibly learn the trade under such conditions of work us are common, to this shop. In my opinion this is really tire chief factor in a- steady reduction in the number and proportion of well-trained voiiihh.” Mr Pearce contends that unless some remedy is found for this sialo of affairs there is little, hope of Britain maintaining its position of having tho best craftsmen in the world-—a position which flic actually hold in 1850, but from which she hnr. in the hr-t fifty years rapidly receded. E'/r.u.m of >A( itiFtci:. At the civic reception to the Prime Minister -Mr Massey is reported to have paid; “ There is not a pastor.ilist in New Zealand who could show a credit balance for the pa.-t, twelve months.’’ If Mr Massey could tell us something about tho pastornlists’ credit balances for the last .‘-•oven yearn I think it would he, found that they had done very well, and could show a very good average profit since 1914, and have had a much better time than the ordinary wage-earner, it is only reasonable that if the workers’ wages have lo he reduced the incomes uf all other rl-.issp.s should giro come down. The electors arc anxiously watching to see how Mr Mu-soy is going to regulate his Government’s expenditure and bring about the reduction of taxation he. suggests. There is no doubt, that this can be. done, but tin; cutting down should rum me nee with the highly-paid officials of the Government, and not. with (lie lowest-paid worker, as is generally the ease. •’Krutater,'’ in the ‘ Liverpool Post/ deals with this .subject as fo!loves ;

Official salaries and bounces must como down. The bmmzcs of His highly-paid men shciikl he discontinued immediately, i here is no sense in ndding nr. o.tliv £boo to a £,I.OO'J salary. We must ha"’ something like equality of sacrifice. The wages of the manual workers and Uie dividends of capital are corning down. Why should we pay an income tax of 6s in tho £ to maintain a privileged class of Civil servants largely engaged on nonessential work? liven if every man and woman in Whitehall were as busy as Ixvs cn indispensable work, tiro principle of an equal sacrifice in limes of stives would still bold good. Thousands o? these men lived in snug dug-outs at home during the war. Why idiould thev cm poet perpetual exemptions! It was I hear war as well as ours, and they have no right to export 10 go scot-free from its economic coueeqnoiKe* while millions of our people aw struggling for a bare existence. It Is no use for these very dipponsahlo gentlemen to try to shelter themselves behind the Navy, education, and our promises in regard to Palestine, etc. John nidi h ready to pay for defence and education and for the fulfilment of Ids I'T ages. Iml he seas no reason why, in add'linn, he should maintain an armv of quill-drivers and form-filler? in Westminstor to do work which is not. required, or which could be done by much smaller stalls, "• •» -x- # THE I!!0X LAW. from an article in iho Liverpool ‘ Weekly Post ’ of July 30, 1921, I extract Um following, which will apply to New he da n<l equally with Die Old Country:--“The iron i'aw of supply and deninml makes if sell felt very quickly in indiwtiv and I'oinmcrc'.'. In the more pi v;■; and pr. t "Clod occupations, and especially those paid out of public funds, ."the effect shows itself mere slowly. That is wbv '.vc bad the spectacle a" little while -ago cf manual workers sulTring a dacrcxro of pay or 10-s of work, while official pay was actually being increased. The time is now overdue for a revirion of tho Argo well-paid and pensionable folk

v.-hn p.ro drawing their sal".vies from. Irises and rates, The 7 J nblic Service has become too expensive, A lot of the \vcrk ''■me might to bo scrapper] as a luxury which the country cannot afford, and the pay for tho osmitial services ought to be oronglit down to {be level of the earnings oy similar workers in private cnloipri.se. Even from the point of view of the cost of living, the fat bonuses of (rovernreent -ml imm.icipal officials ought to come dn. There are t"o many thuurand-a-year men on Mm public salary lists. Hundrorh of them a;c not earning their ray, and could really be dispensed with, .i-s they would bo in properly man aged bi.-iinfiM concerns. Tim real interests enher of the country or of a, town would rot suffer_ a ]KMiny piree if the ornanienlal others were abolished. In these days of comparative poroity nothing hut solid, iudispcuyablo work ought to bo paid for from public funds, "it is less, not more, and cheaper, not dearer, bureaucracy wo need, that wo must, have, if John C'iluce.n is, to keep out of the bankruptcy court and the workhouse.” * # * labor's non; and dream. Have you looked back at the history of working man? If you do, you will find that one hundred and fifty'years ago in England and all over Continental Europe ho \vu- a clave. He was bought and sold with the land. Ho wore one garment, if you would call it a garment. His food was of the coarsest. He had no luxuries. But gradually tho light began to dawn in the minds of those toilers, and they organised themselves into guilds anil trade unions, and they met in the forests and waste places and formed their unions. They were sent (o gaol and died on tho gallows fighting for liberty; lighting for better food, for better clothing, shorter hours, for something to drink, fur some little of the luxuries which idle rich had always claimed for themselves; and you. the poor man of to-day, yon have profited by the bravo fight your ancestors rnado in the years gone by. The world’s goal is liberty. There is no other way. It has never yet had roa.l libci ly. It has never had enough. It has never had very much. What wc arc hoping for and dreaming of is (hat real liberty will some day come to Ibis old world of ours. If you look at tiic history of the human rate, look at its progress in the past, slow and difficult, but still, on the whole, going onward ami

onward : if you look away back to where man first began, and it looked very hopeloss, and lock at the work! now, and you think lie has a good deal. l-lve: v step is marked with blood. It shows iho toils and troubles of the human race, and yet through all tho world has glue on, moving upward, and every step his been led by one hops and one dream, and that is lh« hope and dream of liberty, tho dearest to the hearts of mein—C. >S. Harrow.