A PALPABLE FALLACY

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15061, 7 October 1922, Page 4

A PALPABLE FALLACY

The “darg” which has been operating in the New South Wales coalfields is (a contemporary points out) an old evil under an alias. In different countries it has appeared under different,, names; but its character has remained unchanged. The change of name may sometimes have deceived the unthinking, as false arguments for its acceptance have also deceived, but upon trial the “darg” or “go-slow” or “limitation of output” has been unmasked as an impostor as certainly as an old criminal is revealed by his finger-prints. In the New South Wales coalfields the system appears lo be taking the form of refusal to work full time and cessation of work on unjustifiable pretexts. But whatever the mothods, the effect sought is the same —the obstruction' of operations and the embarrassment of employers. The results are also the same; decreased production, heavier costs, redubed consumption’ loss of markets —and unemployment. The “go-slow" doctrine, whatever form it may take, is foredoomed to failure because it is based upon an entirely erroneous belief—the belief that by giving less and demanding more the worker can advance his position and increase his share in the woallh produced, Writing in The Rot'arian, Governor Henry J. Allen, of Kansas, U.S.A., gives some apt illustrations of the failure of the limitation-of-output 'plan. He writes of a union limit placed upon the number of bricks whioh each worker should lay in a day. The result was that men who needed buildings refused to carry forward construction under the high cost. The buildings were not erected. Instead of providing more work'" for themselves, the bricklayers succeeded in bringing about a slump in the brick-making, steel-working, building, and lumber, industries. Senseless division of labour has been another method adopted by the leaders of Labour to provide work\and retain high wages. Governor Allen, instances a job now requiring the services of three Skilled artisans and three helpers because each skilled man says it is not his work to do the. whole job. Formerly it was done by one handy man. He says: “Out in the Middle West this multiplication of personnel upon the task has had a wrecking influence, not only upon the industry it has touched directly, but upon all which are affected indirectly. . . Railroad freight rates are incredibly high. Is it not that they are paying too many men to do the men’s work.” Not only the railway workers have suffered by this multiplication of personnel, but all which is affected in any way by transportation costs. “I am not urging,” concludes Governor Allen, “that it is necessary in America to do away with the eight-hour day, but it is necessary to do away with the pernicious idea that labour prospers most when it works least."