THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19964, 4 December 1926, Page 20

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES. By J. T. Paul. THE RATIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONVENTIONS. The Director of the International Labour Office has been advised by the Secretary-general of the League ox Nations of the registration of additional formal ratifications of certain Labour conventions. . .. Thus Franco has just ratified the convention concerning the weekly rest in industrial establishments. Sweden has ratified the convention concerning equality of treatment for national and foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for accidents. The Netherlands have ratified the convention concerning the rights of associational and combination of agricultural workers. COUNTRY WORKERS’ WAGES The now award which operates in the Canterbury district as from Monday next contains the following clauses: Musterers when employed to muster sheep for any purpose shall be paid not less than £4 6s per week if engaged by the week, and not less than 17s 8d per day if engaged by the day. Musterers engaged Ixy the week shall receive an additional payment of 17s 8d for any Sunday on which they are required to do any mustering. - Packers employed in connection with mustering shall be paid not less than £3 11s per week if engaged by the week, and not less than IGs 2d per day if engaged by the day. Any musterers or packer required to do snow-raking shall be paid £1 5s per day while engaged in such work. Youths inay be employed to learn mustering at not less than the following rates, in addition to their board and lodging: For the first year, £1 10s per week: for the second year, £2 per week. In all the above cases food of good quality and sufficient quantity, including butter and jam, shall be provided by the employer. In all cases where it is reasonably practicable, musterers and packers shall be provided by the employer with good. dry. sleeping accommodation on the hills, and proper provision shall be made, by oil sheets or otherwise, for the protection of all bedding from wet during transit. Musterers required to travel more than 10 miles to a station shall be paid for such travelling one day’s pay. Drovers shall be paid not less than £1 Is 8d per day. and all necessary expenses. The provisions of the award shall not apply to any worker who is employed regularly as a farm or station hand, and who assists in mustering or does packing for musterers. THE GROWTH OF CAPITALISM. “To the historic aphorism of Sir William Harcourt, ‘We are all Imperialists to-day,’ and to xjord complacent utterance, ‘We are all Socialists now,’ we may' with greater accuracy add a third, ‘We are all capitalists.’ says Sir John Marriott. M.P., writing in the Fortnightly Review for September. Sir John Marriott quotes Mr Philip Snowden, who, when Chancellor of the Exchequer in a Labour Ministry, confessed that he was stag> cred by the magnitude of the contributions which are made by working neople to-day, in one form or another, to provide for what we colloquially call a rainy day. A sum f £216,000,000 was Mr Snowden’s estimate of the savings of the working class for the year ending March 31, 1924. Small investors in England are estimated to number 15,000,000. There are more than 800,000 shareholders in the four great amalgamated railway companies of Great Britain, and about 260,000 shareholders in the five main banks, averaging more than 200 a holding. A great undertaking such as the Cunard Company, usually associated with the notion of control by a few great magnates, numbers 27.000 shareholders on its roll. Vickers has 73.000, Harrods 23.000, and Lyons 25,000. The average holdings vary from £4OO to £l7B. The average life insurance policy (without lionus) is in Great Britain £230, and of money so invested £470,000,000 is in the hands of small'holders. There are 1,000,000 members of building societies. Mr Walter Runciman, whom Sir John Marriott quotes, estimates working class savings at £1,750,000. These are very remarkable figures, and although they are’ not sufficient to justify anyone in stating that mverty is a thing of the past, they go to prove that there is a much wider diffusion of wealth now than at any other time in the history of this country, and that capitalism, so far from being restricted. to a small circle, now include an ever-increasing number. Indeed, only a minority of the adult population is not to a greater or smaller extent capitalist. STUDENT ENGINEER WORKERS. During the vacations of the Canterbury College School of Engineering a large number of the students obtain employment with engineering firms and local bodies throughout the Dominion for the purpose of gaining practical experience of various branches of the profession. The students are exempt from the provisions of the Arbitration Court awards and are generally paid a wage commensurate with the value of the services they render, taking into consideration the fact that they are engaged more in the capacity of apprentices than as journeymen workers. In the great majority of cases the employment of the students does not interfere with that of the workers engaged in the industry, but there have been occasional instances reported to the Amalgamated Engineering Association of men being dismissed and their places filled by students. In November. 1923, the Christchurch branch of the association protested to the Minister of Labour against the dismissal of married men, and it is stated that investigation by the Labour Department’s officers substantiated the claim and protest. The matter has again been the subject of action by the workers and the secretary of the Christchurch branch of the association, has written to the Minister of Labour bringing under his notice the fact that marred tradesmen were being discharged and students from the engineering colleges employed in their stead. The letter states that the association has received first hand information to the effect that two of its members working for the Dunedin City Council had received I heir dismissal notices and students had been engaged to fill the positions. The letter goes on to state that while there had been no dismissals in Christchurch on this occasion, the same Christchurch firm that had acted similarly in 1923 lo the Dunedin City Council, had in its employ at tho present time 12 students, and it could not, therefore, be denied that tho employment of such a number dohaired some men from securing employment who had no doubt been unemployed for some time, as tho trade had been extremely quiet. Tho association, alter quoting the Minister’s reply io its protest in 1923. expresses the hope that he will exercise his po.vcr where cases of abuse occur. THE FIVE-DAY WEEK IN AMERICA. The annual conference of the American Federation of Labour, attended by 400 delegates representing 3,000,000 workers, discussed the shorter working week, A despatch, dated October 4, reads as follows: “A new wage policy, amounting to nothing loss than a great involution in the methods of trades unions in the United States, sums lo be indicated by a slalenient made yesterday by William Green, president of the American Federation, of Labour, which opens its sixteenth annual convention at Detroit to-day. “After a meeting of the executive committee, Green said it was proposed to increase production in return for a shorter work-week without reduction in wages, as various industries had already proved tneaiscives ready for the change. “This is a notable reversal ol policy on the part of American labour leaders, wi-n have hitherto regarded a five-day week only as a means of providing jobs for a greater number of workers by creating a nocos-ity for employ ini/ additional hands to keep up the output.” Supplementing tho above. Mr v\ imam Green, secretary of the federation, said: “We think several industries —notably mining, building and automobile-making are ready for the shorter week. Labour will not sacrifice wages to get it, but we will not get it until productivity is increased. “Tho productivity per worker _ is so great in the automobile industry that mo output per head has increased from 25 *o 50 per cent. “Tho shorter week is made necessary by the nervous tension under which the industry is carried on. by the unprecedented

specialisation and standardisation of the industry, and the monotonous and stereotyped nnture of many processes in our great works. The grinding roar and noise in moocm factories affect the workman in every way. If he is to live at all. wo must reduce the number of hours to conform to nis strength. If long hours are continued the manufacturer will suffer, as ho will have a larger labour turnover. IMcn siniply will not remain in places of employment where they will suffer physical degeneration and nervous exhaustion.” UNEMPLOYMENT IN RUSSIA. The unemployment question continues to cause much concern in Russian Government and trade union circles. According to Industrial and Labour Information, the weekly publication of the International Labour Office of the League of Nations, the number of unemployed which, since 1922, had been steadily increasing, reached its culminating point in July. 1924. At that time a general reorganisation of the employment exchanges was carried out, and from then until February, 1925, unemployed other than industrial workers were not permitted to register with the exchanges, the result being that the total number of regisered unemployed was considerably reduced. But in July, 1925, the number again increased, and this increase has been since maintained. On May 1, 1926, there were 1,091,000 registered unemployed, of whom 18.3 per cent, were skilled workers, 18.0 per cent, were intellectual workers, and 42.0 per cent, were labourers. The census covers 250 unemployment exchanges, and the total number of unemployed would appear to be about two million. An analysis of the various categories of unemployed indicates that about 50 per cent, of the Unemployed is made up of labourers. The number of unemployed intellectual workers (civil servants, doctors, engineers, and professional men in general) has been decreasing progressively during the last three years. There has latterly also been a considerable drop in the percentage of skilled workers unemployed, as many were absorbed into industry during the industrial development of 1925. Among trade union members, out of work, there are 329,000 skilled workers and 261,000 intellectual workers out of a total of over a million, the remainder being made up of seasonal and unskilled workers. It is calculated .that 35 per cent, of the unemployed have had no previous experience, and are seeking settled employment for the first time. ■ One of the principal causes of unemployment is the migration of excess labour from the country to the large industrial towms. Generally speaking, about 60 per cent, of the workers receive relief of one sort or another, or are employed in a labour association or in public works; the other 40 per cent, receive no relief whatsoever.