INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 79

INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY.

Br J. R. Sinclair.

THE NEED OF THE HOUR

Work—the noblest thing yet discovered under God's sky.—Carlyle.

At no period in the history of our people lias the soundness of the wise man's counsel —"What thy hand findeth'to do, do it with thy might"—been brought home to each one of us -with greater clearness and force than it is to-day. Our might, not merely in one but in all directions, is urgently called for, and must be put forth. For we are engaged in a struggle to maintain principles which are the ideals of our nation —justice and right. National strength, involving thoroughness in all we do, must be at its greatest. We are opposing the attempt to set up in substitution for those ideate the spirit of the German proverb, "Kin Handvoll Gcwalt ist b:sser als ein Saakvoll Recht : " (a handful of might is better than a sackful of right)— the strong may oppress the weak. Belgium must submit in violation of a solemn treaty to outrage and devastation, because it is not strong enough to resist. Might is right! This in this twentieth century is trie watchword of our adversary. It would establish an international code of morality under which no civilised people could live—tnc code of the beast of the field. , Well may Sir Edward Grey say that-he would rather die than live under it.

We have, with our allies, set ourselves out to oppose. What we have to do, we must do with our might. We must put forth the last ounce that is in us. We know that all parts of Empire realise what in before them. They are standing together. Unity is strength. This phase of the warfare is so clearly before every eye that I leave it. But it is far from all that is called for. There are other directions in which our people throughout the Empire may fight as effectively as in the ranks. For there can be no permanent fighting efficiency, in the absence of industrial efficiency. The lasting strength of a nation must depend upon its trade, upon the thoroughness of its equipment, upon the faithfulness with when every unit of the community does its work. In no other way could it bold its place in that warfare of international competition for trade which went on yesterday, is going on to-day, and will go on long after the war shall be over. To.maintain the nations supremacy, work must be of the best; individual effort must be put forth to its full capacity. There must be no hampering of the wheels of industry; there must be a full measure of production w.thm reasonable hours of labour; exertion must be adequately remunerated; of sweating there must be none. The laws that lie behind production are not made, and cannot bo made, by Parliaments. There is individual obligation on employer and on worker—puts'de legislative enactment, —loyalty in its widest and best sense. Given this in fu.i measure, there would be small place for laws whose purpose is to try to regulate labour conditions. In the crisis of to-day, cables tell us that we have, on the one hand, at a time when our nation is fighting for its ideals, for its very existence, multitudes who are straining every nerve to produce, to do their duty to themselves and to their country; on the other, some—happily the comparatively few —who are hampering output by indulgence in drink. What a reproach! Thoroughness, pride in work, can have no place in cither their industrial or moral economy. We do well, as I think, to stress, in season and out of season—it is the lot of every colonist the nobility of work. Labour is inherently noble in worker and employer. “Blessed,” says Carlyle, “is he who has found his work. The glory of a workman . . . that he does n s work well ought to be h;s most precious possession, like the honour of a soldier, dearer to him than life.” Hero wo are all workers, and, if I may be permitted to record my observation in other parts, of Empire, nowhere is work clone more tnoroughly. It is on our work that the final judgment must be passed, on each by his fellow man. Was he a worker? What d ; d he do? Was it done well? Most men are their own severest critics. No man worthy the name can be satisfied with himself if his work has boon elipshod, and thorGior© fraudulent.

A good deal is heard from time'to time about" capturing German trade. There is, it is submitted, but one way of doing this. It is by equipment, by superior industrial efficiency, by production, and by trading with our own people—giving theffi first call every time. Trade that our nation lost in the past was won by these means, ■ “It is always safe to learn even from our enemies.” Our Empire’s" trading has always been carried on in friendly rivalry. No one grudged our competitors trade which they captured, so long as they “played the game.” The magnanimity, or the indifference of, our people too seldom discriminated between citizen of Empire and foreigner. In future we must rigidly discriminate. Our Mother Country left her markets open to competition—the best evidence that there has been no trade jealousy on her part. The foreigner - had the same opportunity there os the member of Empire'family That cannot be—must not - b e _the eystem of the future. To hold our own as a trading, nation, leaving on one side the controversial question of-tariffs, wo must equip. There must be Imperial organisation, united action throughout tho Empire, co-operation between all its parts, industrial education, facilities for transport of produce between all parts of our Empire. Here the colonies are vitally interested. We must stand united industrially, like as we are united at the front. Equipment is one of the duties and responsibilities of the employer—tho best machinery, the most up-to-date appliances, tho highest directive ability. Superior efficiency is one of the duties and* responsibilities of the worker. Co-operation there must be m the wide sense As between different parts of Empire ’ so between employer and worker: the ’worker called on to sell his labour only —life limb, and health safeguarded. No worker can offer these for hire He engages to give his intelligence and the labour of Irs hands. These should bo given in full measure in return for adequate pay. Whatever is hold back of a fair wage, whatever is held back of reasonable exertion, is fraud, which reacts both on the community and tho individual. It is well to keep clearly in view in appraising effort, making for tho strengthening of the Empire, that those "who w«rk.. either at tho front, or by equipment, by organisation, by invention, by directive ability, by the application of skill, or by manual labour —in a word, workers in all directions, in whatever part of the Entpire 'hey may he (and tho better the work the

better the man) —are the most valuable of the nation’s assets. Ancl .it is essentially well to remember that low wages and long hours reduce the worker’s value. They do not mean cheap labour. Those who cannot bo workers may be ablo to give of their substance. How great would bo the strength of a nation whoso efficiency wore maintained on a footing of true co-operation, how justified the satisfaction with himself of both employer and ■worker. And its attainment, in practice so difficult, would seem to be so simple, calling only for the spirit of loyalty in its full sense on the part of all —the recognition with Carlyle, that all true work is sacred, that the position which has not its ideal, its responsibilities, was never yet occupied by man. The epic of our nation today, still following Carlyle, is not only “Arms and the man,” but as well, “Tools and the man.”