NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21497, 22 May 1933, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

TALKING "SHOP" "I welcome tho chance to listen to shop, thereby emulating the late 'Tay Pay,' who never neglected the chance to learn about the other fellow's job," says a writer in the Birmingham Post. "For beyond its intrinsic or utilitarian merits, the practice has social advantages certainly not to be despised. Get a man talking shop and as a rule you get him talking well. He may know nothing of tho world at large, but ho does know his job. His theories may bo nobulous, but his facts are static and incontrovertible. His arguments may be clearly unsound, his conclusions inconclusive, his ideas and ideals somewhat awry. On his job, however, ho cannot go wrong. Wherefore ho talks —with confidence, verve and authority. If he is loquacious, you get detail plus, but often that is preferable to theory and opinion. If he is tongue-tied, tho invitation to talk about his job invariably loosenu it. How easy it is to break down a man's reserve, to penetrate his armour of shyness, with tho offer to hear about his work! He may not be keen to talk specifically about himself. You may not be over-keen to hear him. His job, however, is quite another matter. Commonplace to him, nevertheless it is more than likely to bo interesting to others. Ho can talk without fear of making a fool of himself—an enormous advantage. Ho can expatiate, illustrate, instruct, amuse, and edify. He cannot bo contradicted, challenged or upset. He can only be questioned, and he cannot be wrong. What more, indeed, can anyone ask of conversation?" MIND AND THE MACHINE The necessity of applying scientific methods to enable the human element in industry to adapt itself mentally to the changed conditions in modern life was urged by Dr. Leonard p. Lockhart, in a speech to members of tho League of Industry Easter Study School. He said the strain of mental adaptation to modorn conditions w r as enormous, but it was not always manifest on tho surface. Planning on a scientific basis involved planning every aspect of life. Wo must not only plan and organise our material life, but apply scientific investigation to tho vital question of human adaptation. It was far from general acceptance that there was such a thing as a science of human nature, and further still from acceptance that such a science was of practical importance to every one, and that some knowledge of it should be an indispensable qualification for all in positions involving control over other people. When a response to a situation learned in childhood had to bo changed in later life to meet now demands, that was a true example of suppression. In place of a primitive reaction was substituted something more complicated. The word repression was often confused with the word suppression. Suppression was actually the putting aside tho old man and putting on tho new. Repression was nothing more nor less than intellectual dishonesty. Life was becoming more and more standardised, and we were trying to force the essentially individualist man into essentially similar modes of thought and conduct. It could not be done without danger and something must eventually give way. If wo utilised our scientific knowledge of matorials in conjunction with tho scientific knowledge of mind there seemed to be no limit to progress. SHORTER HOURS Speaking at tho annual meeting of his company in London, Mr. P. Malcolm Stewart, chairman of tho Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers, Limited, disagreed with tho tendency to condemn mechanisation, which was often a part of the process of rationalisation. The fault lay, ho said, in our failure to take adequate advantage of the benefits which mechanical science and invention had placed at our disposal. Mechanisation had amazingly increased productive capacity, but this result had been attained with such rapidity that wo had outstripped our slow-growing knowledge of how fully to use it. An outstanding success had been scored in that it had transformed much of the most arduous and dangerous manual work, often ill-paid, into easier and safer work, generally better paid. The lower costs obtained benefited tho producer, but in a diminishing degree as his products flooded tho markets. Lower prices favoured tho consumer, but they reacted on tho producer. Unemployment and reduced purchasing power became general, whether caused by over-production or underconsumption. Ho hoped tho time was not far distant when Britain would take the lead in demonstrating that mechanisation need not enslave man, but give him greater freedom. He urged an immediate effort to reduco unemployment by working shorter hours *and evolve a practical application of the "sharo the work" principle. Action should not be deferred because there might bo a few industries to which shorter hours would not bo applicable, or because many would require uniformity of hours worked. Initially tho costs of production would bo somewhat increased, but ho was convinced that the advantages to industry from the resulting improved efficiency, particularly where tho working hours could be condensed into a five working-day week, and from decreased unemployment, would go far to mitigato tho increase of coists once experience was gained.