Unions and Efficiency.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14971, 19 May 1914, Page 6

Unions and Efficiency.

Uuious of course have a perfect rightto work to secure the best possible wages and conditions for their members, but- employers have also a- right to ask them in return to promote efficiency. To be always asking for higher wages and shorter hours and yet doing nothing to make up for this in a higher rate of output and better quality of work, is a very one-siued business, and bound of course to react unfavourably on tho workers themselves in the Jong run, since it is impossible for them to prosper escopt by reason of the prosperity of the in-

dustry in which they aro engaged. Yet it is the policy of most unions. Great interest, therefore, attaches to ai- article in tho "Manchester Guardian" on tbe work of the Domestic Servants' Union in Copenhagen, for this Union realises its responsibility to the employers as well as to its members. Marie Christensen, its founder, was a servant- who worked, like most others of her class in Denmark, all day and every day. She had aspirations for culture, but she knew that leisure was necessary if these were to be realised, so she and a few of her servants tormed a union. This union had three objects —the raising of wages, the shortening of the. long hours of labour, and the raising of the status of the servant. Tho last object is the one to which particular attention is directed. Meetings of the union were used to give instruction to the less accomplished members of tho body. A cook would give lessons in cookery; a housemaid would show young servants how to tidy a house, ar.d set a table, and so on. The result of this far-sighted policy was

that mcinbcrs of the union became recognised as ".killed servants, and mistresses, finding this out gradually by experience, to give voluntary preference to unionists. Being skilled, the unionists found that they could command higher wages than before. The Union went further, and set up an institution similar to our Girls' Hostel, a combined boarding-hou.se and restaurant, where servants were given practical training in domestic work. By providing facilities for the study of literature, languages, politics and other subjects, the union seeks to stimulate the interest of servants in the larger aspects of life, to train their minds and widen their sympathies. England, says the "Manchester Guardian." needs a Marie •Ghristensen. .So does .New Zealand;' so, iudeed, dees every •country. What does the average uuion in New Zealand do to promote efficiency? ]>oes it do anything beyond perhaps making a small grant to the local technical college? Tbe firebrands of unionism of course will scoff at the Copenhagen example as assisting tho hated "exploiter,"' but moderate unionists might well consider —putting the matter on its lowest basis —how much they might gain materially if they adopted a policy-similar to that of Marie Christensen.

A sad story comes from Paris, showing apparently great apathy on the part of Frenchmen in regard to one of the most distinguished French men of letters. The last home of Balzac and the remnants of his furniture, which it was attempted to keep as a museum, in honour of his memory, was, when the mail left,.in tho hands of tho bailiffs for unpaid rent. Balzac resided afc the time of his»death at No.. 47-, Rue Raynovard, Passy. . In I^K)3< M. do Royauhiont, himself, a litenary man, undertook to pay tho rent of the honse and to establish in H a museum in honour of tho memory of Balzac. The house ooiongs to « lauy, Madame Barbicr, who is 80 years of age. M. de Royaumont, according to thb Paris correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph," was to pay 30C0 (about £120) a year, which was to bo defrayed chiefly by means of the voluntary contributions of the Society of Admirers of Balzac, which ho founded, and whose members were to pay 12 francs (rather less than 10s a year). Unfortunately, he was only able to get 150 paying subscribers, which was not enough. An attempt to make up tho deficit by charging visitors ono franc admission to the museum met with poor success, thcro being ouly 80 visitors during the year. Of these, ho it noted, no fewer than 79 were English. Tho magistrate beforo whom tho case was brought, ordered the wholo museum to bo transferred to a furniture warehouse unless the rent in arrears was immediately forthcoming.

It appears that this is the second crisis which lias occjurred in the brief history of tho museum. In 1909, the bailiffs were in possession, and the' officer who took an inventory stated that its contents consisted of an old wooden coffer, an old walnut table, a Louis XIII. armchair, some statuettes and plaster bust* and aqua tortig engravings representing Balzac, an unpublished manuscript, a collection of his works, and numerous books concerning him This prosaic official further stated that tho whole collection might be worth "anything from 200 to 2000 francs." It may perhaps be said that thcso visits of tho bailiffs after Balzac's death aro merely carrying out tho tradition of his lifetime. Balzac mado largo sums of money, and in his books he deals with, money matters with great shrewdness and apparent knowledge. Yet ho never fully mastered the great basic principle of economies laid down by Mr Micawber, and, like that illustrious personage, he occasionally got into a very tight corner.

Surprise has more than Once been expressed that the spread of Prohibition in New Zealand has not been accompanied by any marked decrease in \the total consumption of alcoholic liquors. Tho same anomaly has been noted elsewhere-. According to tno London "Daily Telegraph," while Ontario is steadily increasing its "Nolicense" areas, drunkenness continues to increase. Since 19C6 the number of persons convicted of drunkenness has more than doubled, and last year's increase was nearly twice as large as any previously recorded. The number of Commitments is attributed in part to the greater activity of the authorities, but, as the "Telegraph's" correspondent remarks, this explanation scarcely accounts for tbe large rise in liquor consumption throughout tho Dominion, revealed by official statistics. Between 1909. and 1913 the consumption per head had risen as follows (the figures representing gallons) :— Spirits 0.860 to 1.112; beer, 5.708 to 7.005: wine. 0.091 to 0.131. .

A member of tho Canadian *?ouse of Representatives (Mr J. H. Burnham) recently administered a rather pointed rebuke to a number of, well-meaning ladies carrying on an agitation for the passage of a Bill prohibiting the importation, manufacture, and v sal» of cigarettes., and making it an offence to give them away. Mr Burnham suggested to these ladies thai before they came to Parliament, seeking to reform the habits of men. they should give

some attention to tho reform of feminine dress. "It did not," ho said, "become a sex which was the slave of fashion in dress, and exercised no control of themselves-in following the freak and daring decrees of tho modistes, to seek legislation demanding self-control and reform in men." The Prime Minister (Mr Borden) opposed extreme legislation on the cisarette question on less personal and more rational grounds. He pointed out that lin 1903 Parliament bad passed a law | prohibiting the sale of cigarettes, to- | baero, and cigarette papers to persons under 10 years of age. If that law 1 was not enforced, ho asked, how could |a law prohibiting tho manufacture J sale, and importation of cigarettes be enforced ? With regard to the growth Jof cigarette-smoking among boys and I.youths, he expressed the old-fashioned j but very sound opinion that maternal [ influence would be rnoro effective than i all tho legislation Parliament couii j pass. "If maternal influence," heconj tinned, "had the same force now as i thirty or forty years ago, per&aps wo ! should hear less of the need of legisla- ! tion. It docs seem rq mc that wo aro J getting more and more into tho habit of getting domestic affairs placed under i direct legislation instead of under | family influence."

j Should tho British Government perj sisi in a course which will force Ulster ' into armed resistance, tho Army diffi- ! cully must recur. It- is unlikely, how- ; evor, that there will bo a recurrence, of i the cry, "The Army versus tho People." I The Liberals, after, the first five of excitement died down, realised that it ; was a bad cry in many respects, having juo basis in fact. The officers assorted jno claims against anybody, but only their personal rights. At first there to be something in the contention of some of tho Labour mombors that- the officers had established a precedent, which the soldiers mizht follow by declaring their right to "disobey ordore" if called upon to assist the civil authority in any labour trouble. But the implied analogy is a fake one, as Mr L. C. Amcry made clear in replying to a Labour M.P.: —"I pointed out perfectly clearly," he said, "t'*at as regards tho question of eupnortiug the civil power against riots, against disorder, against breaking up the ordinary law theso officers were entirely prepared to do their duty. Where it is a question as, to whether the Government for party ends is risking civil war, tho officers and men have a right to act upon their consciences in tho matter." If labour riots broke out at the threat of a law realiy injuring workingmen's rights and consciences, no fareeeing statesman would think of so acting as to bring tho Army into actiou. But strike riots, as we in New Zealand know them, aro anything but risings in defence of honour and liberty.

It was stated in a cable message, published yesterday, that tho late .Ma- AY T. (Stead's "Julia's Bureau" has been re-started, with Miss Estclle Stead as ono of the directors. Mr Stead founded "Julia's Bureau" in 1909, at his own expense, for the furtherance of the spiritualistic phenomena in which he had such firm faith. Many spiritualists are suro that Mr Stead has communicated with living peoplo sinco his tragic death in 1912, and in a recently published book, "Has W. T. Stead Returned?" it-is claimed that but for the Bureau be would not have been able to "return" so convincingly to thoso who know him. But while "Julia's Bureau" has doubtless interested and comforted many peoplo, and will continue to do so, as a means of truly scientific research in tho occult, it cannot havo much value. Mr Stead was really unfitted for tho work of investigating the unknown. Such investigation dcnvindsan open mind, and the most strictly scientific methods of enquiry and judgment, particularly in the weighing of evidence. Now Mr Stead had many admirable qualities, but tbe capacity for cool enquiry, the ability to weigh evidence judicially, was-not one of them. He was an idealist, a man governed largely by his emotions, and such a temperament is as unsuited to the atmosphcro of scientific investigation as rule of-thumb calculations are to a physicist's work.

Phil May depicted an American and an Englishman travelling from Liverpool to London on a "beat express." The American made some remark about tho high speed of tho train, and tho , Englishman asked him if he were afraid of, an accident. "No," baid tho American, "but I'm afraid of the train running off your durned little island." We aro reminded of tho joke by the announcement iv this morning's cable news that an engineer has invented an aeroplane train which he believes will attain a speed of 500 miles po/ hour. When it attains a high 6peed it is to leave tho rails and fly. In small countries $uch as England and New Zealand the risk of tho train leaving "tho durned littlo island" would seem to bo considerable. A man might dine in Wellington and go to tho theatre in Auckland the same night; but the slightest mistake on tho part of tho engine-driver, if it did not smash the train to powder, might take the traveller as far as the North Cape, or bring him down in tho Tasman Sea out of sight of land. Moreover, a layman may ask whether there is any fabric that could bo guaranteed to stand the strain of such a speed, and whother it is within the ability of human nerve to direct it. In any event, nobody really feels that ho ought to travel at 500 miles an hour.