THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18802, 3 March 1923, Page 15

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

NEWS AND NOTES. Bt J. T. Pact,. PRODUCTIVITY AND LONG HOURS. The steel trust is busy “investigating” another labour problem—its labour problem, the 12-hour day (says an American Labour paper). It is doing this through the Amori- * can Iron and Steel Institute. It is trying to find ont whether a shorter day can be introduced among tho steel workers. In the meantime, the question is answered for them by a committee of the Federated American Engineering Societies. r ihis committee says that there is no economic or technical necessity for the 12-hour day. On the contrary, much better results for all parties are obtained from a shorter period, the eightihour ray. Production is actually increased, and there are loss absences from work. MR WELLS AND LABOUR. To a press interviewer Mr H. G. Wells, Iho well-known writer, recently gave the reasons which had caused him. to throw in his lot with tho British Labour Party. ‘T think I see the vital, intricate mechanism ■ of modern civilisation falling to pieces/’ He said: ‘T see tho organised system of Europe dying. I see a sort of paralysis gradually extending from the outer limbs, and now at last penetrating to tho very heart of tho European system." He wont on to say that he had joined the Labour Party “because ho was appafled at the wanton levity and floundering incompetence with which the business of the nations was being carried on.” WAGE REDUCTIONS. In tho Industrial Court of New South Wales the wages of hotel employees were recently reduced as follows; —Aten, 7s per week; women, 5s 6d per week. Proportionate reductions in allowances wore made. Tho wages of dairymen were also reduced by 7s per week —4s to take effect within 14 days of the gazettal of tho variation and 3s a month later. _ On the application of the Employers Federation the hours of storemen and clerks were increased from 44 to 48 per week. . . The Sydney Harbour Trust is making drastic cuts in the wages of engineers, notwithstanding that the trust agreed to abide by the conditions of tho Federal award in the engineering trade. In sonra cases wages have been reduced by 15s per week. " WASTE IN INDUSTRY. Into the wide field of waste in industry, a preliminary exploration has been made by a committee ct the Federated American Engineering Societies. Iho object was to carry out, through highly-skilled investigators, a rapid intensive study of a few typical plants in some of the chief industries. Six in ail were dealt with —building, metals, textiles, men’s clothing, boots and shoes, and printing. . _ In tho committee’s report waste is classified as duo to low production caused by faulty management; interrupted production of idle men, plant or materials; intentionally restricted production, whether by employers or employees; and lost production from iil-hcalth and similar' causes. An interesting attempt is made to calculate the proportion of waste attributable to tho different factors —management, labour, and “outside contactsand it may be noted that by far the largest proportion is held to be duo to the first, while the responsibility of outside contacts is somewhat less than that of labour. DO BRICKLAYERS GO SLOW? Smart rejoinders by bricklayers to comments on “go slow” tactics merely draw forth evidence in corroboration (writes tho Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne Argus). Master builders have no hesitation in declaring that men do not lay more than half us many bricks as they did when there was but little work, and they know that there were other bricklayers ready to take their jobs. Information of this kind is disheartening to those who have postponed erection of homes until costs come down to bedrock. They realise that they will never roach natural bedrock while “goslowism” is permitted. Even some fellowworkers are not reluctant to point out that if a bricklayer went to a store for a pound of bacon and was handed a half a pound for the price of his pound his language would bo dreadful. Ethics, however, are not at the bottom of the bricklayer's policy. His services are needed. There are not enough bricklayers to go round. Those are the basic facts of it. Meantime there is rapid progress in reinforced concrete construction, in which .more unskilled labour cun be employed. KING’S NATIONAL ROLL. A communication of interest has been received by the Returned Soldiers’ Association showing the steps token in Britain to absorb into employment all disabled ex-ser-vice men. All employers are asked, unde* tho scheme, to employ as many disabled ex-servicemen as possible and not less than an agreed percentage. Employers who comply with the conditions in co-operation with the Local Employment. Committee and the Minister of Labour are entitled to use a special device on their letter paper, etc., showing that they are participators in the national scheme. Tho success which has attended tho movement shows that •up to May 1 last the names of 30,286 employers were inscribed on tho King’s National Roll and that 562,478 disabled men were provided with employment under the plan. Tho Government has decided that except in very exceptional circumstances all firms receiving Government contracts must be on the King’s Roll This rule was only adopted on June 1 of last year. A number of local authorities have followed the Government’s example and have adopted resolutions restricting the allocation of contracts to firms on the roll. Tho whole question is. I understand, at present under the consideration of the various Returned Soldiers’ Associations. COMMUNISM IN AMERICA. Mr Pulman spoke for tho United States at the Fourth Congress of the Third International (says an English correspondent). He said that American capitalists are malting use of the present economic crisis throughout the world in order to carry out an offensive on the Labour organisations. This offensive dealt a very severe blow to the organisations of the Labour class. The number of organised workers had considerably diminished, tho American Federation of Labour alone having lost more than 1.000,000 members. Great strikes, such as the strike of the automobile-makers and of Iho railwayman, were met by extremely repressive measures on the part of tho Government. A capitalist offensive on tho Communist Party and on tho Left Wing of tho trade unionists began at tho same time. Arrests and exportation were accompanied bv tho torture and (ho murder cl politicaf prisoners. With the object of combating the workers’ movement tho capitalists organised what is called the American Legion, a body corresponding to the Italian Fascist!, and the reaction also relied upon private detective agencies and on tho Ku Klux Klan, as the American Fascist! are called. The trade union bureaucracy offered no active resistance to this onslaught of the capitalists. Samuel Gompers, head of tho American Federation of Labour, established friendly relations with the American Legion. The Communist Party in America devoted its attention to penetrating into the trade union organisations, where it is now taking an active part in the formation of the Left Wing. In the near future a keen class conflict will take place. LABOUR REGULATION IN GERMANY. A Bill regulating the conditions under which industrial undertakings may dismiss workers or close down has recently been drafted for submission to the Reichstag. The object of the Bill is to co-ordinate and make permanent the provisions contained in the temporary orders promulgated by the Commissioners for economic demobilisation. The first of these orders is that of November 8, 1920, which applies to industrial undertakings employing' regularly at least twenty workers. The heads of such undertakings must notify the authorities in charge of diwnobilisation one mouth in advance oT their intention to close down the works, either partly or entirely, whenever such a step involves the unemployment of a specified proportion of tho workers-viz., 10 persons in undcrlakngs employing less than 200 workers, and 5 per cent, of the staff in undertakings employing more than 200 workers. The second order incorporated in the Bill is that of February 12, 1921, concerning the dismissal of labour and the systematic introduction of short time. It authorises the Federal Government, when the situation on the labour market calls for such & measure, to order that undertakings employing at least 20 workers shall not he allowed to dismiss more than 5 per cent, of their staff without special authorisation.

The notice to be given by employers intending to dismiss a larger proportion of their staff is four weeks and may be prolonged by two months. The authorisation to dismiss workers can early bo granted when the character of the undertaking makes it impossible to introduce systematic short time, that, is to say, to distribute the available work among nil the workers by reducing the hours of each. The minimum reduction in hours per week is 24. The wages of workers on abort time may be diminished in proportion to the reduction in working hours. JOTTINGS. The world’s largest floating dock is to bo constructed at Southampton at a cost of £750,000. It will be 960 ft long, and 16,000 tot is of steel will be used in its construction. When .completed the dock will be able to berth any of the largest sea-going ships. A piece of copper 5400 years old has been received by the Copper and Brass Research Association, of Now York (U.S.A.), from the American Consul-general ai Berlin. It is the oldest piece of copper in existence and was cut from a copper pipe found in some excavations at Ghizeh, Egypt, near the tomb of the Egyptian King Bahoure. The pipe is three feet six inchoa long and about three and a-half inches in diameter. Speaking at the winding-up meeting of the Bathurst Labour Day Celebration Committee, President A. P. Grow said that the Eight Hours Day processions were becoming a screaming farce, and the question of abolishing them ought to be considered. The processions held in Bathurst for some time past had not been a credit to tho unionists. The displays had convoyed tho opposite idea to that intended, being merely advertisements for the employers. He thought that band contests wore to bo preferred. Other members of the committee also took a similar view ~ In “The Economics of Unemployment, J. A. Hobson offers many arguments against the plea for wage reductions and reduced cost of production at times of unemployment. Two may bo quoted; “The history of ‘sliding scales’ in wage agreements testifies to the influences of elasticity of wagea ih aggravating fluctuations of trade by enabling employers to gamble upon future wage reductions.’’ “High wages and other costs of labour have everywhere operated as incentives for employers to discover; adopt, and improve other economies, technical and administrative, which have more than offset the higher cost of labour.” Tho production of New South Wales factories in 1921-22 wee valued at £46,560,117, an amount which compares with £43,128,137 in 1920-21. Tho factories operating within the State wore increased in number in 19211922 by 514, and although they provided employment for 148,482 workers- —5471 more than in tho previous statistical year —their hands comprised 285 fewer males, the increase being entirely in members of the other sex. There was a contraction of £5,534,573 in tho value of output, from £137,341,336 to £152,306.813; materials used cost £81,827,752, or £9,276,753 less than the cost in 1920-21; but the outlay upon fuel was some hundreds of pounds greater. In wages the amount paid was £26,626,645. as against £25,616,591, male workers receiving in 1921-22, £23,306,819, and female operatives £5,319,826.