WAGES[6]
_How shall we better distribute the product of industry,
and allay the unrest of which we hear so much? There's
only one way--by improving our methods of production. To
effect this the earnest and active co-operation between
those engaged in industry must be employed._
_... No longer must a man be supported by his union when
he refuses to mind two lathes because the custom of the
factory confines him to one. No longer must an employer
assign as a reason for cutting prices that the man's
wages are too high.... Each side must endeavour better to
understand the outlook of the other._--SIR HUGH BELL.
The second grievance mentioned in the _Quarterly_ article already
referred to is: "The wages are too low." To remedy this grievance,
increased productivity, along with greater economy in working, is the
first essential in order to obtain the funds out of which higher wages
can be paid; the second, to get a fair allocation and distribution of
the profit made. Increased benefit will also be a stimulus to better
work.
For a crowded country like ours to maintain a leading position in
industry is obviously a necessary condition either of welfare or
progress. It is of first importance to secure work of high quality. A
highly civilised and trained nation must hold its own by the superior
quality of the articles produced as well as by being able to supply both
its own needs and to compete in prices with others by the quantity of
output. It may be possible, for example, to hold the market for fine
spinning when other countries are well able to supply coarse yarns from
their own factories. Hitherto this country has been able to maintain a
lead in industry largely through causes which are no longer operative.
Thus, we had (1) a settled Government when Germany and Italy were
divided into a number of small and inefficient and often very badly
governed States, when France was exhausted and unsettled, and when
America was only in its infancy; and (2) the advantage due to the fact
that the great discoveries and inventions which advanced industry were
mostly made in Britain, when industry was developing at the close of the
eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. Many of these
inventions were made by manual workers who, by intuitive genius, saw
what was needed to meet the requirements that arose in practice. There
was not then that fund of accumulated scientific knowledge and
experience in existence which anyone must have before he can make any
advance or improvement to-day. There was an interesting print published
some forty years ago giving portraits of the Englishmen who had made
contributions to practical science and who might have been assembled
together in one room in 1808. It included many who made their inventions
as manual workers. Murdock, who invented a new lathe, and developed the
use of coal gas, worked until over forty years old for a wage of a pound
a week; Davy had been apprenticed to an apothecary; Bramah, who invented
a new hydraulic press, once worked with a village carpenter; Bolton and
Watt and Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam hammer, were practical
engineers. Never in the world's history has there been such a galaxy of
practical talent and inventive power as those whose portraits are shown
in this picture. Now a larger amount of preliminary knowledge as to what
has already been done and of the sciences is necessary, in most cases at
least, before useful inventions can be made. The more widely this
scientific knowledge can be made available throughout all classes in the
country the greater is the possibility of maintaining our lead. It is
also important to maintain, so far as technical education can give it,
skill in carrying out methods already established and improving them,
and also in making the worker more adaptable to new conditions and
altered circumstances instead of being a mere machine able to do one
class of work only, and adhering simply to the one rigid method which he
may have learnt. But knowledge and training are not all that is wanted.
It is essential that all classes connected with industry should realise
that increased production in established and well-understood industries
is essential, and that it can only be obtained, first, by willing and
vigorous work on the part of the workman, aiming at producing as much as
possible in the hours during which labour can be efficiently carried on
without detriment to health or depriving the labourer of the
opportunities of enjoying a life outside his daily routine; and,
secondly, by the increased use of the best machinery and labour-saving
appliances and working such machinery to its fullest capacity. Instead
of that, it has often been the policy to restrict the production of each
man's labour, one reason being lest there should not be enough
employment to go round, and also to view the introduction of machinery
which might displace labour with hostility and suspicion. In order to
give the leisure which the workman needs for a full and healthy life,
and to provide a wage which will enable him to secure the comforts which
he rightly desires, as well as to obtain adequate remuneration for those
who manage businesses, and interest on their money for those whose
capital is to be embarked in them, increased production is necessary;
but it cannot be expected that workmen will realise this or desire the
result unless they know certainly that they will obtain at once a
benefit from it. It has too often been the case that where some new
invention has been made, or new machinery introduced, or the conditions
of trade have enabled an industry to be more profitable, the workman has
not shared in the benefits obtained until he has pressed for an increase
of wages, even to the extent of striking or threatening to strike. The
faults and jealousies leading to restricted production are not all on
one side. Cases have arisen when a manager has let out a piece of work
to a group of workmen at a price which has resulted in a larger output
in a given time at less cost, though the amount paid to each man has
been higher owing to increased diligence, yet the employers raised
objections, because the wages earned were "more than such men ought to
have."
It is essential if the workers are to make it their aim to increase
production and to use every effort with that object, that they should
know that of a certainty, and at once, they will get a benefit from what
is done. At present it is commonly the case that in order to obtain an
adequate wage the worker works overtime, and presses to have overtime
work, because the rate of pay for overtime is higher, and that during
the normal hours of work he does less. Cases have actually been known in
which the worst class of workmen play during the greater part of the
week, and then have gone, during the War at all events, to work for the
week-end, including Sunday, at a very high rate of wages at some other
place. In the short time of working at abnormal rates they have gained
as high wages as the steady and efficient workman who keeps steadily at
work through the normal hours. As long as such conditions exist we shall
not have the shorter hours which are necessary for healthy and happy
life, and we shall have the friction and irritation which arise from too
long hours of work. A higher rate of wages during shorter hours of work,
when the work is done with vigour and efficiency, and the certainty that
the wage will be increased if results are favourable, are necessary
conditions for industrial welfare and industrial peace. The wage system
should be so designed as to make it clear that the wage is a share in
the industry's earnings which is to advance as these earnings advance. A
"regulated slide of wages rising with the prosperity of the industry as
a whole" would help to secure this without friction. Methods of
industrial remuneration giving an assurance of thus sharing the benefit
of increased or more economical production are required. A valuable work
on such methods, which are already very various, was published by the
late Mr. David Schloss many years ago. New methods will, no doubt, be
found. The problem, however, is one for judicial treatment by those who
have devoted special study to it.
The methods already tried include the more general adoption of
piece-wage, progressive wage arranged in various ways giving a fixed
rate for the hours worked plus an additional sum proportionate to the
excess of output over a fixed standard, collective piece-work, contract
work, co-operative work, sub-contract, profit-sharing in various forms
including special bonus, product-sharing, and industrial co-operation.
Each method should be considered on its merits, in the light of the
experience already gained, and having regard to its applicability to
each class of industry. The aim and the principles which must guide
endeavours to achieve it are clearly stated by Mr. Schloss:
"But while a reduction of hours of labour, say to eight hours in the
day, may readily be admitted to be on grounds both economic or social
highly desirable, yet it is no less desirable that during those eight
hours every working man in the country shall use his best available
tools and machinery, and, performing as much labour as he can perform
without exerting himself to an extent prejudicial to his health or
inconsistent with his reasonable comfort, produce an output as large as
possible. In the interest of the people as a whole it is expedient that
the remuneration of the labour of the industrial classes shall be
increased, and since this remuneration is paid out of the national
income, it is a matter of great importance not only that the working
classes shall succeed in obtaining for themselves a far ampler share in
the national income than they at present receive, but also that the
productive powers of the working classes shall be exercised in a manner
calculated to secure that this income shall be of the largest possible
dimensions."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 6: This chapter is intended to refer to what may be regarded
as normal conditions. In some cases the recent rise in wages has been
excessive. The present position is chaotic, and the ill-advised manner
in which the 12-1/2 per cent. advance was made has added to labour
troubles and will cause great difficulty in the future.]
_D.--RELIGIOUS PEACE_