THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21829, 16 December 1932, Page 15

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

By J. T. Paul.

NEWS AND NOTES

In the present machine age the use man makes of his leisure is one of the pivotal factors in the success or non-success of civilisation, There is need for sound international education for leisure. If boys and girls arc taught to have msthetic tastes,, useful hobbies, and wholesome recreation, civilisation can be saved. Primarily education must be liberal and humanistic, and only on this foundation should vocationalism be built. A wider endowment of vision and leadership is required.—Mr Frank Milner, C.M.G., rector of Waitnki Boys’ High School. THE “OLD GENTLEMEN.” “They had to bring the Labour Party to a clear realisation of the fact that they were not going to get Socialism merely by voting for it either in Parliament or at elections. The beginning of Socialism was not going to be a pleasant business,” said Mr G. D. H. Cole, the Labour economist, in a speech reported in the Oxford Times. “ He did not want another Labour Government soon; it would either attempt to carry through the old gradualist policy, or, if it did attempt to carry through a new policy, it would break down through lack of understanding both by the leaders and their supporters. “ They had to find a new leadership. He did not want to find it by heresyhunting. He did not want to thrust the ‘ old gentlemen ’ out; he wanted them to go.” THE VALUE OF MECHANISATION. “ The objections to mechanisation are generally due to the abuses rather than to the proper uses of the products of mechanical engineering,” said Mr William Taylor in his presidential address to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. “ What are the general purposes attained by those products? One is the reduction of the strain of heavy, and often injurious, labour by man and beast. Another is to save montonous labour. Many who speak disrespectfully of what is termed mechanisation imagine that the main thing machinery does in industry is to destroy some noble artistic instinct in the operative and to make of him in turn a mere machine. This is generally a figment of imagination. A third object of machinery is to save time, and this it most commonly does by saving the time spent in monotonous work. _ In all cases, whether the work be physical or mental, machinery relieves mankind of drudgery alone, and contrary to popular belief, it leaves to him more and more the work which calls for the exercise of hia higher faculties in the imaginative art and the science of his craft.”

UNEMPLOYMENT POLICIES. The Government intends, during the recess, to review in detail the_ pressing problems that confront the Dominion and prepare plans for dealing with them. Unemployment must have a prominent place on the list (says the Christchurch Times), for there is a growing impression that, as yet, we have not gone beyond the palliative stage and that something more is required. The transference of funds from one section of the people to provide maintenance for another section that cannot obtain work, while it may be regarded as inevitable, merely has the effect of making the position static. It cannot be said to be a solution, and that fact is becoming generally recognised, especially at Horae. The Economist, in an examination of unemployment policies, stated that while there was a valid case to be made out against increased public expenditure financed out of rates and taxes, in that it was a mere transference of purchasing power, the same objection could not be raised against reproductive capital expenditure financed by means of loans, and this is an aspect that should have attention in New Zealand. Some of the things upon which money has been spent, to provide work for the unemployed, may ultimately be of benefit to the community, but, taken as a whole, it cannot be said that the larger part of the expenditure, national and local, has that justification. The Christchurch City Council gave the Dominion a inquest lead (says the Times) which the Auckland Council now proposes to follow. Its engineer has prepared a list of essential works, and from this the Works Committee has selected some that would involve an expenditure of about £160,000. It recommended the_ council to undertake a programme of ordinary work instead of relief work, and in this way to provide employment for a large number of men. It may be possible to finance the programme, in part, out of revenue, but the larger items on the engineer’s list would require the expenditure of loan money. The whole problem must be approached from the angle taken by Mr Lloyd George in Britain. The expenditure required to meet unemployment should be used so as to improve the efficiency of the national machine.

A PLEA FOR THE HUMAN FACTOR. Speaking at a luncheon held by the Auckland Creditmen’s Club, Mr VV. R. Tuck, a member of the legal profession, pleaded for consideration of the point of view of rne worker. The character of the relations between worker and employer was of the utmost importance in the recovery of any country, he said. Such conflict arose out of a very real difference of interests. He realised that the employer, under the pressure of circumstances, sought to get the work done as cheaply as possible. On the other hand, the worker wanted to get as much from his work as he could. There was a community of interest between the two, because a prosperous business was good for both. Co-operation was a first necessity, The first point be would stress was the necessity for each party to know, appreciate, and understand each other’s point of view. A feeling of trust and respect was possible between an individual employer and his workers. “There is far too great a tendency among the employers to over-rate the power of the so-called agitator,” he said. Those men denounced, in public, as the leaders of the trouble, behind the scenes, did their best to bring the trouble to a close, and most speedily. In a very real sense of the word, the speaker said, the man who had several children to bring up had a greater interest in the country than the man with £20,000 and no children.” It all came down to one point—the human outlook, the quest after happiness. Too many men were concerned only with the production of a satisfactory balance sheet. Discussing present industrial conditions, the speaker said it was not the dole that was demoralising. It was the conditions that make the dole necessary that are demoralising—the hopelessness of worklessness, the despair of outlook. If capital had to be cared for, so, by the same token, had labour.

UNIONS AS EMPLOYERS. According to the Wellington Dominion there is a certain amount of unrest and a disgruntled element in the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union. It is freely stated (says the paper) that many of the Wellington waterside workers consider that they are paying too many officials, and paying them far too much from their present greatly reduced earnings. They consider that the only official to draw a salary should be the secretary, and that he should be paid on the basis as a 44hour week at the basic rate of pay, 2s an hour, that is, £4 8s a week, or £228 16s a year. Last year officials’ wages accounted for £775, the officials in receipt of salary being the secretary and acting secretary, walking delegate, and acting walking delegate, while honoraria to the president, treasurer, librarian, and Foxton delegate accounted for £sl. and the upkeep of a motor car at the disposal of the secretary and walking delegate a further £79. This the men consider to be out of all proportion, especially ns the slackness in shipping has reduced their wages very considerably during the past two years. Further big items in their expenditure which they desire to see reduced are capitation fees to the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Federation and to the New Zealand Labour Party, particularly the first, which amounted last year to £370. This body of men considers (concludes the Dominion), it is stated, that the union should by now have a large reserve fund, as there has been no industrial trouble necessitating drawing upon the fund for a number of years. Instead of a large fund, however, there was in the last au-

nual balance sheet of the union a credit balance of only £724 in the bank. The men thus contend that their contributions merely paid the officials’ salaries, and did not build up a reserve fund as they should. A second body of men, it is understood, desires to go even further, and to break up the union and form a new one having no salaried officials at all.