WORKMEN AS MEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1928, Page 4

WORKMEN AS MEN

LORD BALFOUR ON HUMAN NEEDS

The human needs in industry were discussed at a. largely-attended meeting of supporters of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology, at the Royal Society of Arts, London, at which the Earl of Balfour, the president, occupied the chair. Lord Balfour said it was a. great pleasure to reflect that they could discuss a. subject in which there was no contest or friction between employers and employed, for the interests of both were identical. Whether that optimistic view were correct or not, it was admitted on all hands that it must be to the advantage both of Ihe workers and the . administration of great or small factories that conditions of work should be such as to lighten the labour, inconvenience, and general discommodity supposed to be attached to daily toil, and thereby increase output, to the advantage ol the whole community.

If they cast their mind over the great fields of industry they would be impressed by the increasing degree to which science had been brought in as an ally of industry. That, was a note, of modern economics. While the science of the. material world was being daily called upon more and more to help them in the great, task of keeping in comfort and raising the standard of comfort of the whole community, they were sometimes apt to forget that industry’s affairs were not merely the affairs of machines,, but of men. They had not only to devise the best, machines, take advantage of the recent, knowledge of natural law, but had also to consider the human element. That had been left too much to itself. They, made great efforts to deal with sickness and the accidents of life, but the actual comfort and efficiency of the men engaged on tlie work had not always been regarded as the business of the employer. of the State, or even of the mail himself. After all, men had minds and bodies, and therefore, if they were to study the human element in production, as they studied the mechanical element or the chemical or electrical elements, they must consider both the psychological and the physiological. They must consider human conditions. They must recognise that as they selected the material part of their great economic mechanism with the utmost care, so they should put within reach of human beings all the information they had with regard to the aptitudes which by birth or education they had at their disposal. The institute devoted itself both to the psychological and the physiological sides, and also to that branch of the bigger question which dealt with the aptitude that each one possessed for special lines of endeavour.

He was personally concerned with two branches of the machinery by which the investigations could be, and ought to be carried out. One of those was the Committee on .Industrial Fatigue' which was a branch of a larger Government institution with which he was connected dealing with medical research as a whole. Admirable work was being done in all branches of investigation. The branch which dealt with Industrial Fatigue touched upon fundamental questions with which the institute was profoundly concerned. They must have both branches of the machinery working to a common end, to a certain extent differing in their methods.

Speaking broadly the committee were concerned with costly fundamental researches, which .applied equally to a vast number of wholly different industries, but might be of equal use to all of them simply because they depended upon the same fundamental laws of nature which it was their business to investigate. The institute came into closer and more immediate touch with the practical needs of employed and employer; it dealt with the varying circumstances of this factory or that factory, this town or that town the special needs of various industries, the special aptitude of this or that individual for carrying on to the best advantage for himself, his family, or the community, his share of the common wealth. He thought of the inter-co-operation of the two organisations —the Industrial Fatigue Committee, dealing with the fundamental problems, and the institute, not neglecting the fundamental problems so far as their means permitted, but in the main, and on the largest scale, endeavouring to deal with these day-to-day necessities varying from time to time, depending as much on human sympathy and the direct knowledge that could be acquired of the different needs of the different workers. He was told that the requests for the aid of their society grew year by year. Their resources also grew, though he feared they were far behind their needs, even at the present time. Their investigators had been actually working in factories, and they had gone away with the goodwill of both sides. (Hear, hear.) Tn the discussion that followed, Mr A. Stephenson said that the workers who could give much valuable information often kept silent about conditions which hampered their work, because they were afraid of being ignored, ridiculed, or regarded as impertinent. Where foremen tried to get workmen to work under them instead of with them, the result was usually spoilt work, reduced output, discontent and disorganisation. Dr. C. S. Myers (director of the institute) summing up the discussion, said two questions were frequently put to him by managing directors: How do you manage to find such excellent. men and women investigators? and: How do you manage to keep them? He stressed the demand of the institute for further adequately-train-ed investigators, and admitted that Jits investigators were repeatedly receiving offers from the management, to join the staff of the firms where, on behalf of the institute, they were work-