SHORTER HOURS.

Evening Star, Issue 21725, 21 May 1934, Page 3

SHORTER HOURS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Bo the recent letter by the self-styled Welfare League concerning hours and wages, 1 desire to quote opinions expressed by some of the largest employing interests in the world. 1 do not quote them because J consider them to bo .superior to other persons who express similar opinions, but merely to illustrate that the very section of the community which the league professes to be championing does not agree with the league's statements. When the reader has perused the statements quoted bo will then be in a position to decide for himself who is likely to be. in the best position to judge—our friends who stylo themselves the Welfare League, or the authorities quoted. Lord Trent, chairman of Boot’s Drug group, speaking this year, said: “If the Government would co-operate with industry it would bud many employers ready to adopt schemes which would spread employment by the reduction of working hours without either reducing wages or increasing taxation. One suggestion 1 have to made is a compulsory month’s holiday with pay for all employees in the retail trade.” Mr -I. Gihson ITairvey, chairman and managing director of United Dominions Trust, a big British banking house in which the Bank of England is largely interested, and which specialises in the provision of credits for industry, said; The problem before the country today is nothing more nor loss than the distribution equitably and efficiently of the goods wc are able to produce. . . . For the present, therefore, we are compelled to give the closest attention to the intensive development of onr home market, a market too long neglected, and here there are opportunities for considerable expansion. A good deal of economic reorganisation will be necessary, and, above all, there must bo a readjustment of hours _of work and rates of wages. This is imperatively required owing to the evergrowing rate of productivity duo to the machine. Some stimulus is required to set factories running again. This stimulus must operate in the first place on the consumer.” Mr P. Malcolm Stewart, chairman of the Associated Cement Manufacturers, a man who controls industries with a capital value of £20,000,000, said; “ How can industrialists seek to reduce unemployment? Surely by working shorter hours pud employing more men. We should not wait for international agreements which may be long delayed. In this matter I believe we can set onr own standard of progress and should take the risk of facing the difficulties in order to accomplish the all-import-ant task of bringing more men back to work.; . . . None of the disasters prophesied by the pessimists when improved conditions of labour have been fought for and won have ever come to pass. . . ' . Surely we are not so bankrupt of ideas to secure shorter working hours, a worker’s share in the profits of industry, and a yearly holiday with pay instead of evolving clever reasons for delaying progress. . . .. My creed is that fair wages must come first before interest on capital. There is a wise and ancient book which says: ‘ The husbandman that laboureth must be the first partaker of the fruits.’ ” And lastly, Mr Henry Ford, speaking last month, said: “I have found that higher wages do not mean increased costs under proper management. Better paid workmen are more willing and more efficient. . . . When you get

into the field of material supply you nm up against the financial state of mind. You meet a corporation that practically controls some basic material and find that the corporation’s interest is not in its commodity at all, hut in its financial organisation. Its prime interest is not in turning out whatever commodity it may he, but in dividends.” Doubtless the Welfare League has what Mr Kurd calls the “ financial state of mind.”—l am, etc., D. G. M'Muxan. Ivurow, May 14. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The New Zealand Welfare League says: “For an exporting country to adopt a policy which increases costs (how do they know this when it has never been tried here) would result in loss of its markets.” Why worry about markets that are offering about 4d per pound for butter when there are hungry men and women in New Zealand who would gladly give 9d a pound and increase the consumption of the rest of the dairy produce by twothirds and would buy the woollen goods produced here if they were within reach of their spending power? Perhaps the cost of living has not increased to such persons as the League or anyone in receipt of £250 a year and over. In fact, it has fallen, because there is food and clothing and luxuries in abundance for those that have the money to get the benefit the laboursaving machines have brought about, though at the expense of suffering by the people whom these same machines have thrown out of employment. But to the 70,000 odd or those in receipt of a meagre wage the cost of living has increased a hundred fold. Ask a woman who has 11s or 12s a week to feed four persons on after paying rent if it hasn’t soared beyond her reach. This week we have been faced with the glaring signs, “ Buy New Zealandmade goods as it increases the sales and therefore places more men and women in positions.” With tho present eighthour day aided by tho modern machines there is no need to put on extra hands, and tho manufacturers know quite well that all the demands made on them can be supplied with tho present labour working at top speed, and this is being done in preference to shortening hours and letting everybody enjoy the benefits of leisure which tlic machines were created for! It would take a tremendous amount of talcs Vo cope with tin; output, ami if the thousands of unemployed haven’t tho money to buy tho goods, how much i better off' aro the manufacturers by pursuing tho old worn-out method of the eight-hour day? It has been said that it takes about ten years for a new idea to enter the brain of man, but it seems to me that some people’s heads aro granite and nothing new can enter, and no amount of suffering hy a section of the community has any effect on them when it touches the delicate matter of profits. Thu New Zealand Government is stor iug up a tremendous lot of trouble toi itself by keeping to a policy that prevents ono-third of the population from being properly fed and clothed. Apart from its degrading effect, the Government is creating a class that will have to be cared for in institutions for the sick, almost from childhood; for any doctor will tell you that when one’s vitality is exhausted one is a sure subject for the breeding ground of disease. This is where the profits tli.’it are guarded so carefully at present will have to he spent in a few years' time, "ail line.' ex Ire cos is that prevent ns optnaL.j '.vii! i- ;■ no: '■ i-. !■> , !■■ huge com t. ~'na- for i’m -Ink and ailing in the ao*. e. ’ am. etc . AALLvj. —,_.'h