A SOUND POLICY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 62, 11 February 1936, Page 9

A SOUND POLICY.

(Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)

Hon. ?R. Sc'nple is encouraging good workers in' Us policy of “placing men on piece-work wherever possible/ 3 so that the men “have the chance to make as much as they can. 33 This is sound policy, but it will be opposed by the Communist agitators who have always fought against piece-work in British industry as evidence of “capitalist brutality. 33 This attitude of the Communist is, like many other of their actions, most inconsistent, but inconsistency does not worry them. A year ago Alexei Stakhanov was an ordinary miner in Russia operating a coal-cutting machine. He saw that the miners were not producing the amount of coal they should, so he set to work to show what could be done. If Soviet figures are correct he can maintain an output of 100 tons per shift and has once reached 207 tons per shift. His example inspired a workers’ movement in the same direction, and lias spread into other industries. For instance, a woman weaver has increased her activity until she can handle 114 looms instead of 50. In steel plants certain workers have trebled their output—these are only a few examples. Piece-work or payment by results lias been Stalin’s policy for two or three years and this “Stakhanov Movement 33 is hailed, as “a higher stage of Socialist competition” by the Communist leaders in Russia; yet Communist leaders here, and in Britain, oppose every move to increase the output or efficiency which leads to better earnings. We note with satisfaction that Mr Semple has told the Communists here, “where they get off.”