The Wanganui Chronicle. PATEA-RANGITKEI ADVERTISER: "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1890.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 11594, 20 March 1890, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle. PATEA-RANGITKEI ADVERTISER: "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1890.

"The outlook of the industrial -world" forms the subject of a series of articles that have lately appeared in the Otago Daily Times. In one of the most recent of such articles the writer affirms that much cannot be expected until public' opinion is sufficiently educated to recognise that "the basis of reward is riot ability but fidelity — that all men who do their best do equally, and are entitled to the same return." This is surely an extraordinary principle for a reputable journal like the Otago Times to lay down. It has, ho wever, been fairly met and combatted by an "Impartial" writer in tlio columns of the same paper/ The question Raised by our Otago contemporary is one that has troubled trades unions and labour councils ever since such organisations have had an existence. The more intelligent and efficient of the members of such bodies have always recognised the ■unfairness of establishing a fixed rale of wages for all men in the same trade, irrespective fof thoir capacity as workmen. But the better class men have submitted to tha adoption of a bad principle in the reward of labour, simply because up to the present, it has seemed to be the only feasible basis of union, and the union has been recognised as a power for enforcing the demands of the tradesmen. But if unions are to be effectual— especially where they essay to fix the rates to bo paid for skilled labour — workmen will have to be'prepared to submit to classification. Outside of trades and trades unions men are paid according to value ; and it will never work satisfactorily, either in the interests of tho employers or of the men themselves, for organisations to affirm that all men of a trade, be they good workmen or bad workmen, shall be paid alike, unless ability and efficiency, as well as fidelity, aro to count in the remuneration to bo paid for labour, inen'will soon cease to be efficient. Iv our public school system teachers aro over trying to improvo themselves, with the object of getting into. a higher class, and so securing increased fomnneration. If it were the rule to pay the same salaries to inefficient as to efficient teaclie -s, upon proof that tho former did their best, what encouragement would there be for clever teachers to strive to excel. It is impossible but that there shonld bo a strong feelingofsympathyamong/thekindh^artod for men whose spirit may bo willing, but wliose body and brain aro weak. It may seem hard that the man who does his best should be remunerated on a lower scale than his neighbour who, becauso he has been more liberally ondowed by nature, is able to do more and better. The former suffers, perhaps, for no fault of his OWI1 — but tho apparent iujustico" is, nevertheless, hardly capable .of human rectification. To raise tho weak to a levol with the strong, tho unlearned with tho highly educated, the unskilled with the clever, and the inferior with those of acknowledged ability, could only result in causing society to take a step backward, and all classes to descend, to a lower level. As, says the Times' ''Impartial" critic, to whose lottor wo Have already referred: "Tho basis of reward should bo both [fidelity and ability] and it is utterly' fallacious to say that a weak, knock-kneed, narrow-chested man, who cannot clo a fair day's work, is to be paid the same as a stalwart, able-bodied navvy' to whom pick and shovel work is almost a relaxation. From what I know of human nature, and workingman nature in particular, it won't stand that doctrine long. The able-bodied man, if ho is paid no more than tho fooble, will very soon learn to do a fcoblo man's work, to his own detriment and the community's loss. Tho whole toiiclonoy of this doctrine, C

as well as of Socialism generally, is the [ • survival of tho unflttest/ and will lead . : to the greatest misery of the greatest number, instead of the greatest kappi- . ness of the greatest number. Civilisation ' would fall to pieces like a rope of saud, and we should soon revert back to a morn primitive state than tho Incas of Povu (who wero State Socialists), to begin tho j slow uphill process of evolution again. Any .attempt to oqualise the rewards and conditions of the strong and tho weak, of tho clever and tho stupid, of tho improvident and the thrifty, of the industrious and the lazy, are "contrary to nature, and are as certain to end in failure as to ondeavour to neutralise the laws of gravity. The mawkish sentimentality of the present day is responsible for a good deal of unnecessary suffering as it is. Like tends to reproduce like, and the law of tho survival cf the fittest is tho only efficient check to matters getting worse. It is well-known that in America and olsowhere the mistaken benevolence of certain persons has rendered the condition of deaf mutes so favourable that they marry and are largely adding to the number of tho deaf and dumb. To reward the weak, unhealthy, stujjid, and reckless, tho same as thoso possessing tho opposite qualities will infallibly tend to increaso tho number of the former and add to the sum total of human misory — God knows, geat enough as it is."

We have to apologise to our readers for tho late delivery of the Chronicle recently. The fact is, that the driving power in our machine room has riot proved sufficiently powerful for the heavy \Yharfdale printing machino wo have lately imported from the Old Country. Wo have now ordered a 2-horse Otto gas engine from Atickland, which will be shipped at the earliest opportunity, when we hope to get our papers worked off in time for delivery to our town subscribers by 7 o'clock in the morning. We havo also engagod a first-class printers 1 machinist from Wellington — so that, with experienced handling and the command of perfect appliances, we hope that after another week or so our subscribers will have no further cause of complaint on the score either of the printing or of late delivery.