False Fear of Glut

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19457, 22 December 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

False Fear of Glut

AS EVERYONE knows, the progress of science has put Into man’s hands an opportunity for a great ltse In the ceneral standard of -comfoit. And 5 * aiijji aMts^in^a'ting 6 !!! 1 ended, as The Times reporter recorded, on a “Note of Deep Concern.’’ Ttp told us that “more and more does mechani'cal production take the place of human effort, not only in manufactures but m all nm . tasks even the primitive task of un o Sound So man finds this, that while he is enriched with a multitude of possessions anti possibilities beyond his dreamy he is in great measure deprived of one Sieat blessing the necessity of toil. Sir Alfred is a distinguished teacher of the science of engineering, and as such has he d many important posts and 'had high honouis, pj£ mi academic, lowered Tn such a man, after a life of successful achievement In work that has raised h m o well-merited eminence, it may well seem that the necessity o£ toil Is a blessing. To « IntSrJS5« .ni » »aP»"ir certainly he a cause of Immense satisfac tion But is it equally so with all the ordr inarv folk who have to earn their livings, if they can, at dull and ill-paid jobs? Are they Sot extremely likely to be beartily thankful to he relieved of this iso-called is ln o S f ? course, only too true that man has had to work so hard for his living hitherto that most of us have never had learning how to make a pleasant use of le a mre: hut we are rapidly putting that -Unlit. England, by showing oilier nations the way in outdoor games, amateur garrlenwig : am other wholesome amusements, has ptinaps Done More for Civilisation M, an by inventing representative governinoiil—now so -generally discredited abroad or even by starting the industrial revoluli<Vhis notion of work as a blessing is a comparatively modern invention, lorced on man by growing economic needs. Mencken, in 1 1 is stimulating Treatise on Bight and Wrong, points out that early .lews looked mi work as a curse, while Ihe Greeks and Romans thought it a vulgar business, to be left as far as possible to slaves. Now, we have found the machine ready to he our slave and do an ever-growing part of outwork for us: and we are afraid of it, le-r----i-iilert of the “unemployment," which is only another name for ill-organised leisure, that

Blessing of Toil : Blunders and Temper.

it Is alleged to be causing and to be going tr oause still more widely, 'unless we cliain the machine up. In fact, it- is easy -to show that the prevalent tragedy of unemployment is caused by the decline of world trade and the drying up of -the international capital market — both due to the blunders and bad temper of man, especially in America and Europe—and not by our willing mechanical slave- Far from displacing labour, mechanical development, in those trades in which it has beeD specially prominent, has been accompanied by an increase in the numbers employed, as well as by increased output per head. At the same time 'this increased output lias required a .growing number of workers in 'the •distributive and ‘transport 'trades, to handle it and deliver it into the hands of consumers. And this lias happened even in Britain, where the “rigidity” of wages, and of the attitude of the workers towards changing their occupations are supjosed to Represent an Exceptionally Acute Problem. And even if toil were the blessing that Sir Alfred Ewing makes it, and even if its joys were as likely as lie thinks to he curtailed by the use of machinery, are we not a very long way -from a 'condition in‘ which production is so abundant that we can all afford to work a shorter week of shorter days? Britain is still believed to be one of the. richest and most prosperous countries; •but Mr 0. R. Hobson who discussed the subject in Lloyds’ -Bank Monthly Review for July, 1934 has worked out the average annual Income per capita of the non-income-tax-paving classes at £37. How many times ought‘that figure to be multiplied before we are justified In folding our hands and •facing an existence of ease and leisure? And if this is so in a 'country in which the lot of the workers is a matter of general envy abroad, what of the others? In other words, both those who deplore the vanishing of the blessing of toil and those who tell us we are already so well off that the nations can afford the expensive luxury of "Autarky" and mutual exclusiveness are In 100 much of a hurry. If, and when, t'he world returns to a sufficient deg-ee of sanity to make the best use -of its heritage and of the gilts of science, by the free exchange of goods across the frontiers, financed by international lending and Unrestrained by Quotas and Prohibitions, it will be time to think about the organisation of the greater leisure IbaJ may then he made possible. Even then, however, it is likely that as mechanical output -grows our wants in the matter of personal services will grow with at least equal rapidity. And laste for mass production stuff will diminish with the power to satisfy -it and Hie craftsman in whose case toil may readily be sometimes a blessing, will come into his own again as increased wealth enables us to demand goods furnished to our order, to suit our whims and tastes. But all that is a terribly long way oft.