King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, October 26, 1926. PAYMENT BY RESULTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 2341, 26 October 1926, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, October 26, 1926. PAYMENT BY RESULTS.

The question is noAv being asked whether the Arbitration Court is out

of date. Various trades unions have expressed strong dissatisfaction ■ at the findings of the Court, while employers of labour are not at all enthusiastic with this method of preserving industrial peace. The workers, when they apply to the Court for an advance in wages, consider they have a grievance if this demand is not granted. Employers are beginning to take exception to

the practice of the Court in the “merry-go-round” and futile effort to keep wages in line with the cost of living. When the cost of living increases, there is a rise in wages,

and this results in another rise in

the cost of living. So the process of high wages and high cost of living goes on, and there is a complete circle of high wages and high cost of living. There is a great lesson to be learned from Henry Ford and his viewpoint on the great industrial questions of the day. He might be termed a capitalist, but has fought both capital and labour. He defied the capitalists who represented trusts and monopolies and won. He fought labour when he instituted the system of payment by results. This system has now become general throughout the industrial centres of the United States, whose unprecendented prosperity is partly due to “piece work” and partly to industrial organisation. This organisation, however, could not be brought about unless there was wholehearted co-operation on the part of the workers.

Henry Ford is a, strong opponent of a standard wage. This is what he says in his latest book, “To-day and To-morrow”:—There can be no ‘standard wage.’ The wage based on a standard of living is destructive, for it implies that all men are alike, and can agree on how they want to live. Fortunately all men are not alike, and fortunately only a few care to live this year the way they did last year. Any attempt to fix a living wage is an insult to the intelligence of both managers and workers. We do not know what the right wage is and perhaps we shall never know; but it certainly clogs progress to try and fix wages without the facts. The world has never approached industry from the wage motive—from the angle of seeing how high wages may be—and until we have had some experience in that line we shall not know much about wages.” The author also holds strong opinions on the responsibilities of em--ployersV and expresses himself by stating: “Trade union limitations on

production can never come up in a well-managed business. They are an answer to bad management.. If an employer sells his product at too high a price, with his eyes on profits instead of on costs, he will pay low wages, for he will not know what kind of men he needs. He limits his market by his price; and there is no reason why the men who work for him should not also limit their output. Why should men work for an employer who does not so manage his business as to pay proper wares?” America is now the leading industrial nation of the world. She amassed enormous wealth during the war, and made the most of the four years during which the European nations were fighting to consolidate her industrial position. It cannot be denied, however, that since the close of hostilities she has made further enormous strides in commerce and manufactures, and this was only possible by the co-operation of labour and capital. In Britain, Australia and New Zealand there is no effort to bring labour and capital together. There is a gulf between the two, with only the make-shift bridge of the Arbritraticn Court so fair as New Zealand and Australia are concerned. Each side is showing a growing disinclination to make use of this bridge, and some other means may have to be found to settle the differences between the two. There may not be much to admire in many Americans methods and ideas, but in a study of the means by which she has gained her industrial ascendency there is much to learn that would be beneficial! to any country.