DIGNITY OF LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19976, 19 June 1928, Page 9

DIGNITY OF LABOUR.

MIDDLE-AGES AND PRESENT. " GOOD DEAL OF NONSENSE." "There is a good deal of nonsense talked about the dignity of Labour in the Middle Ages," said Mr. T. Bloodworth, in addressing the Auckland Educational Association last evening. History carefully studied revealed that in the Middle Ages long hours were worked for extremely low wages, Mr. Bloodworth said, The toiler was taught "to bow the knee to those in authority." He lived in a hovel, and was made to do unquestionably the bidding of those in higher places. He toiled from daylight to dark —from the cradle to the grave. That did not apply to the working man to-day, and that kind of dignity we did not want back. We would restore the dignity of Labour when and as we recognised that the labourer had dignity. In view of the modern status of the worker as a citizen he should be educated in the relation of his work to the industrial and social life of his country, with some knowledge of history, politics, law and economics. In a report furnished to Parliament last session it was stated that in England "the attempt to restore the dignity of Labour to the high place it held in popular esteem in the Middle Ages in Europe, and give it again its lost prestige, is being made on all sides. . . " "But wo have in the midst of our own community here and now, craftsmen quite as capable of doing every bit as good work as did the workmen of the Middle Ages, provided they are given the opportunity," Mr. Bloodworth said. There was a too general tendency, in considering this question, to have regard mainly to the great buildings reared m the period of which ho was speaking, but what of our modern inotor-cars, steam engines and aeroplanes ? Could there be a greater example of superb craftsmanship than the aeroplane Southern Cross, which had just spanned the Pacific ? Only recently there had been planned a city structure, the first tender for the building of which had been £IOO,OOO. It was then decided to build in a different material, and the cost of construction was reduced by £25,000. "It will still be a remarkably fine structure, but it is an example of how in these days it is money more than craftsmanship and material that counts. In the Middle Ages it was tho job, and the material, that most mattered."