"ca' CANNY."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 434, 17 February 1909, Page 6

"ca' CANNY."

. .THE;ot,her day the news.that, the contractors for the Otira tunnel were paying bonuses for work done' above a stated amount inspired the local Trades and Labour'.Council to pass ah, an£ry'resolution ' condemnatory of tho arrangement and of the men who; acquiesced' in such a serious violation of "the principles of unionism." 1 Tho Council, that is to say, affirmed in effect that the "ca' canny" policy is the policy of which, tradesunionism approves; .and since tradesunionism professes to malce tho. interest of the working -class the. single* l purpose, of its policy, it may be worth whilo examining the theory that it is to the ; interest of Labour to restrict its energy, and to give to* Capital as little. service as possible in return for the, highest possible wagC3. The motive behind trades-union-ism's lore of the policy of "ca 1 canny" must be either one of two! Either the advocates of that policy must feel thaj> the less service ; a • man gives. for ■ a stated wage, the better he is off—ljhat any injury inflicted on Capital, is so much a' benefit obtained by Labour—or else they must feel that , the less each worker does the more workers will bo required oh any given job. The first of theso motives'may riot be wholly absent, but it is the second motive—the desire to make tho work go j round—which is the main one.: -

It is a truism—which' Labour recognises when it suits its purpose—that the larger the proportion of active workers in a community, and the greater the effective productiveness of these workers, the. greater will be the total wealth of- the community. "But," this Labour man will say, "tho bulk of the wealth which we create falls into the hands of tho capitalistic : parasite." If ' that were. true,, and it Vera further true that that wealth disappeared beyond the reach of Labour's enjoyment of it, there would be nothing to say against the policy of , "ca' . canny," But, wealth cannot- possibly disappear like that—the ; more Capital grows, -the greater is. its ability to produce more wealth; for wo do not suppose that even the Trades and Labour Council will deny that • Capital is a. necessary factor in the' production of wealth., At any rate, any Labour leader can convince himself on the point by imagining what would happen , if capitalists of all kinds ceased to spend their money, if the present temporary and partial depression, which is at bottom, a restriction of Capital's activity, were to become complete. The capitalist's wealth is of use to the capitalist only as capital, and he has as little motive for hiding it away as a workman has for withdrawing his labour from t!ie service of the world of industry. These elementary truths seem to'have been forgotten, or never to have been learned, by the rnen who'look , upon a wtorkcr who does his.utmost as a renegade from "the principles of unionism;" ,

Tho effect of the."ca' canny" policy is | plainly to check the wealth of the community in which it operates/ Pushed, far enough, it means the destruction of industry, since an employer who gets only a proportion of the service due to him must in timo give up his unprofitable enterprise. The writer of one of. a series of letters on this subject in the London Spectator puts the position very aptly. He cites the case of' a brickyard in which only 45,000 bricks per week were made until, piecework was introduced, when ; the output rose to 80,000, and he points out that until the new method was adopted the men-were not producers of wealth, but simply consumers of capital: "During those weeks they were a burden ion .tho community. .This is tho canker nt the heart of modorn Socialism. Tho idea is hold that Capital (or tho Stato). is a

cow that can be continually milked with-, out being fed, or a goose which will produce the golden" egg after ,it has been slaughtered." The.man who. reduccs his output is reducing the • wealth. qf the community, and when workmen ,iri sufficient numbers rediico their output in accordance with the "principles of unionism," they are setting in motion the industrial adjustments which' produce depression, poverty, and. unemployment. The process of impoverishment goes, on none the less surely for being unseen.