THE VAG’S COLUMN

Grey River Argus, 3 June 1922, Page 7

THE VAG’S COLUMN

Dear Henry,—You are the most interesting study that ever man took on. Eor years I have watched you, and I was always more or less surprised by your antics. You will break out in the most unexpected places and when yon do start you -o for your life. You will fight one another for .vour daily crust, and compute in the labour market for jobs at wages that will hardly keep body and seal together. You worship your capital’./., masters to such an extent that, you obey their 'slightest wish. I wan'd not mind so much if you obeyed them while on th-, 1 job. but you obey 1 hem after the day’s work is done If they howl for war. you also howl for war: and then you go out in tlinus- nils and do al! the fighting, the bleeding : nd the. dying while they stay :.l home waving flags and joining N.llioml Service Leagues. If they howl against Socialists and Communists you also howl against them, and arc prepared 1o give the poor devil who wants to better vour lot a bad time. You seem prepared to go on toiling in mines drawers of waters —while your exploitand factories —to be hewers of wood and ers ride around in motor cars all dressed up in purple and tine linen and fur eoast. Then at the bosses’s behest you'll go community singing, or flag-flapping anywhere you arc asked. You never seem to gel tired of being a slave and thinking you are a. man. How the devil you manage to pos-e as a free and enlightened individual before Henrietta I can’t quite make, out. You’re amusing Hen! But there is one way you never jump, and that is into the Labour Movement. All your activities go towards keeping you the wage slave you are. I have known for a lung while that scientists ami other servants of capitalism have also been studying you, old boy; and by the plausible stories they tell you, you are led oil on all kinds of red herring trials. But to what extent the scientists have sized you up. I was not sure. However 1 have had my eyes opened a bit this last week. You see The Workers’ Eitui'ational Association held a Winter School .in Hokitika and professors and teachers came over the lull from Canterbury to show the farmers how to farm, and to astonish the natives by their beautiful rendering of sundry elocutionary items. Being interested in W.E.A. work I attended some of these lectures; and 1 found that most of them were put on for school teachers and students. One of the lectures ‘‘Education for Freedom ’’delivered before an audience almost entirely composed of school tem-liers; ami, (I might whisper it you Hen), there are as m- nv Dubbs among the school teachers as in any other walks of life. The professor was brilliant that afternoon and laid before them some ideas of education that fairly astounded them, but most of them would not believe that the scheme outlined would work, and openly said so. 1 could not help think ing, lien that the professor ought to hive had more seme. lie at least ought to know that it is impossible to get a big idea into a small mind. Later mi I went to Runaiiga to hear this same. I’rofesso- lecture to the miners on “The Human Factor in Industry.” Then 1 found out that the professors and the scientists had been studying you from a different angle to myself. The whole of that lecture licit, was showing how much more work could be done by the smallest expenditure of energy. Some of the examples put up to the Runanga people appeared a bit far fetched, but 1 as a Vug dare not question u professor of education, else 1 would be laughed to scorn. For instance he st: ted that by allowing men to work just as they pleased they could carry 121 tons of pig iron in a day; but when the scientist took charge of them and directed them they could carry -13 tons in the same time, and be fresher at the end of the day. Now Hen, I've carried pig iron; and all the professors in the world won't mak eme believe that it is easier to carry 43 tons than 121. It strikes me that the. professor’s workman would be like the Irishman’s horse that went and died as soon as he had trained it to do without eating. 1 run only a vag, lien, but I’ll guarantee to shift 12 and a half tons of pig iron in my own ignorant way and lire longer <-t th*K! .ine than the scientifically controlled Dubb who is shifting 43 tons. Another little illustration the professor gave us was li:>w a bricklayer by curtailing his movements could 1.-v hundreds of bricks more per day. The bricks had to be placed right side up for him to put. his hand on, and also in a position where he would not have to stoop too low to got hold of them. All of this was very good, but what about the poor devil of a Henry Dubb who bad to load Urn bricks from the ground into a load, then climb the 1: dder and place th.-m right side up on a bench handy to the bricklayer. Along with carrying pig iron, 1 at times have been forced by circumstances to carry a hod; ami J objected to the Professor putting mor.' work on the hod carrier to make it easier for the bricklayer. The Professor put in nearly two hours telling u 9 how to ‘ lO °" r Ivork *‘ ! sicr the same time to do a lot more of it. The worst- of it is, Hen, it is not you but the capitalists tlmt./will benefit by t bese labour saving schemes. Do you think vou will get any more wages if ’ nr more 43 tons of material vou cany oi mui< instead of the 12 yon now move . Do vou think the bricklayers’ wages mil be 'increased if he lays twice as many bricks per day than he now does. If vou do von’re a darned fool for thinking so. AH such an organisation would dofor you Hen would be to put you among the unemployed and to keep the C lmp who was lucky enough to be in a jo b sticking to it like glue, because he will linow that if he is not careful he

will get the sack and you will take his place. When you own the job you work on Hen, it will be time enough to study the speeding up systems outlined by W.E.A. Professor, I don’t mean to say that the Professor intends th*' capitalists to take adv; ntage of the quicker methods of work that he lectured on, but they always do. You see Hen, vou are too thick headed to control your own job, and until you do you wiil always be a Dubb. THE UNDERSTUDY.