The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." TUESDAY, MAY 6th 1919. SIMPLE ECONOMICS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 7563, 6 May 1919, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." TUESDAY, MAY 6th 1919. SIMPLE ECONOMICS.

**, _- Mr J. H. Thomas, a well-known Eng lish Labour leader, recently returned to London from Berne to make a strong plea for sanity in dealing with the demand for a shorter day's work. "The fact is," he said, "that the only wealth 13 that which we all produce." Like Mr Thomas," we have every sympathy with the d«sire of the workers for better wages, shorter hours, and more leisure. Especially do we realise the Jus. tice of this desire in countries where the workers are called upon to work leng hours for wholly inadequate remuneration. The only question is as to how for these desirable concessions arcobtainable. As an English contemporary says, "men do not purchase goociis with money, but with the goods t.ht?y produce themselves. Money is only the method of exchange. There is no great central fimd of cash to be drawn en |by the workers. We pay for what v c (buy from abroad in service and products. If we fail to produce, we get nothing for nothing. Foreign coun. tries are not going to present us with liood, raw materials, and tobacco as ac act of generosity. Production, then, :s the basis of life itself and therefor© of good conditions of: life. Many experts i believe that shorter hours lead to greate-: efficiency of production and they are undoubtedly right. But it is clear th.it this can only \ye true up to a certain point. No man could produce more by working two minutes a day instead of eight hours. The question is to dis cover the point where shorter hours spell better work, higher wa,ges and more leisure.' 1 We believe our London contemporary is not far wrong in its belief that half the industrial troubles of today aro due to sheer lack of knowledge. We doubt if any Government could render a better service to the people whom it represents than by taking steps to enlighten them on this problem by talling them something of the fundamentals of economics. CONSIDERATION FOR NURSES A reform recorded by "The Hospital" as having been achieved by the Matron of the Royal Infirmary, Bristol, may perhaps serve as an example in this Dominion. The colnplaint is hot infrequently heard, and we believe it is not without justification, that many of the Sisters and probationers employed in our public hospitals are under-paid and j overworked. Miss Baillie, the Matron | of the Bristol Infirmary, was able ?o announce at an important professional conference that she had succeeded in persuading her committee to grant a day off per week to each of her probationers. In a brief btiit telling speech ,she laid her finger on what she described as the great blot on the nursing 'profession in the Mother Country— not jpay, nor hard work, but over.long hours. JThis it was. she said, which made teachers ri schools hesitate to recommend girls to take up nursing. Commenting, " The Hospital" says: " Perhaps in years to come this eventful week for nurses will reckon Miss Baillie's announcement among its claims to remembrance. The Royal Infirmary at Bristol will foi t-ver hold the distinction of inaugurating this great reform. It is the first; j British hospital in which nurses taste the common privilege of humanity—^tie day's rtst in seven. We are confident |tsat this privilege will'rapidly extend the benefits t<> be gained by it arc j demonstrated. Once eliminate the element of toil without rest from the hos'pita!, and the strongest bar to the <?n----|try of educated women to tlio profession disappears. Miss Clark was able to an'.nomice that hor committee at the ( jWhipps Cross Hospital were in favour of | | granting one day in seven, but I mil, (teen compelled, owing to war conditions, to postpone the inauguration of this vojform. Miss Lloyd Stil1 announced tojwtirds tho end or the mooting that she I was now receiving probationers at the jßg€ of twenty-one. With this reduction

of the probationers' age in view, we hail the new d.partnre at the Brisn.,l .Royal Infirma,^ not merely as a most salutary but as a. most necessary clause in the Realms CWer of Libert,,"