BRITISH WORKMEN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17152, 30 September 1926, Page 6

BRITISH WORKMEN

AMERICAN VD3W } "GRIEVANCES PREFERRED TO JOES" Mr. Frank Plachy, an American journalist resident in England, states, in his book, "Britain's Economic Plight" (published by Messrs. Ernest Benn), that the working classes of this country are inferior in economic intelligence to the corresponding classes in America, Germany, France, and Belgium. , Too many of our workers, he says, would rather have a grievance" than a job. Ho refers to the trade unionists' adherence to time instead of piecework wages, and says that, while in America, where tho price level is 50 per cent, above that of 1913, the average wage is 123 per cent, higher than in pre-war days, in. Britain, where prices are 74 per cent, above pre-war figures, a wage advance of onlv 70 per cent, has been gained. He declares that if masters and men in this country had agreed upon the American system of payment by results a result similar to that which has followed in the United States would have been secured here. The chief obstacles in the way of British prosperity seem to Mr. Plachy to be tho false economy which prevents the "scrapping" of plant when it has passed efficiency, the spirit which hin-, ders combination and the existence of the family tradition in business, which, hei says, often leads to firms passing into . hands* incompetent to manage them. £jf It is more difficult in England than America, he adds, for men who start with nothing to become captains of industry. .