MENTAL AND MANUAL LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 936, 1 October 1910, Page 4

MENTAL AND MANUAL LABOUR

In a recent issue of the. London Times a correspondent, seeking -for "tho., root-cause of labour disaffection,".' raises some interesting ques-tions-v which) although- they must have occurred to most 'people who have thought about "the ' labour problem," are generally left on one side when that .problem is being discussed. The usual statement of the case by the cultivators of labour discontent is that "labour", produces all the wealth and "capital" consumes most of it—an\assertion.'th.e.ab'-': surdity and meaninglessness of which, , Would- become . instantly apparent if the user of it were compelled to say what persons he confounds as "capital" and what persons he confuses as "labour." The Times correspondent, brings forward as the cause. of labour discontent thefacts that, cause some classes of workers to ask "why, they, working the longest hours and being allowed no. annual holiday, should receive the least pay." It is a question that has been asked often enough, and the reply to it is very simple : that brain work that is really work is harder than manualiwork, calls for,higher qualities in the worker, and is of greater I value -to the community.-. Without-] being ablo to' say exactly ; why, the average discontented manual worker,j rebels against all,.these assurances.; When-he. has-a' capacity for ;dialectiche makes rejoinder on the first'count somewhat in these terms: "It is only the brain worker who asserts, this; and he .knows nothing of muscular effort except that which he takes in the course Of his recreation." To the proposition that brain work is of more value than mere mental labour, he opposes the belief that "much of the manual worker's time is of necessity devoted to -real mental activity, which should be admit-, ted to rank at least with the brain' ■worker's routine." , . /

These aro questions, as; the Times says in commenting upon its correspondents letter, of great subtlety and complexity. And the worst; of it, we are afraid, is that nothing that anyone can say upon them is likely to shake the belief of the Radical arid the Socialist that no man should have the means of living better than another man. Yet one may throw out"a.'few suggestions. In the first place, it is not by any means a fact that manual workers work the longest hours and receive the least pay. "In many; fields of intellectual work," tho Times points out, "men frequently take no account of time, but go on as long as may be necessary to complete some task, and much longer / than any workman is ever called upon to exert himself. Somo intellectual workers habitually do/it—there are numerousi classical examples—and oven in ordinary professional life it is not uncommon. Tho head of a business often works longer than anyone in his employ. And, on tho other hand, whole classes of artisans regularly receive more pay than vast of clerks, curates, writers, teachers, actors, musicians, and others, not to mention the cases of .unrecognised and starving genius." As to the second point, that it is only the brain worker Who declares that brain work is harder than muscular effort, thoir only experience of manual toil being in the way of recreation, it is a sufficient reply to put the converse case. It is only the manual .'worker -who says that mental exertion is an easy thing. Brain workers seek refreshment in muscular exercise, but "do manual workers seek their recreation in correspondingly sevore mental exertion i Do they, for instance, study history, .or literature, or languages, or mathematics 1 Do thsy even .play

chess? A fow perhaps do, but to' most any such mental application is unspeakable toil, if not impossible. To write a letter takes more out of them than a day's work. . . .

Nor is it merely that they are unused to such exercises j the reason why they are unused is that they shun the toil. Hence the common complaint that so many boys rapidly forget' all they have learnt at school unless they are compelled to go on attending. Any sort of manual labour comes easier to them than mental effort." When' it' comes to the relative value* of mental labour and muscular effort there is no room for dispute. It is the mark of civilisation, and indeed the condition of civilisation, that mental labour shall be more highly appraised than muscular toil. Progress is possible only through the maintenance of special inducements to brain effort—only, that is to say, through the preferment of brain over mere muscle. In .New Zealand, above all countries, this should be admitted, Bince here there is no_ "idle class." Everybody works who is able to work. As a matter of fact, we do not think the "labour discontent" is so widespread, by a great deal, as the Socialists would have us believe. The case may be otherwise in Britain, where many, thousands of children are, born each „ ear who are destined to return no proper service for the wealth they consume. Discontent with one's lot is often ignoble, although it is often the reverse. The ignoble'discontent is envy_ proceeding from natural incapacity, and it. is by ho means confined, by the way, to the ' man whose only • asset is his muscular equipment. Society has a way of sorting itself • out. -It requires a multitude of ■different services,-'- and those services which only a few can reader naturally stand higher in its price-list than the services which may be rendered by all. Anybody can dig or saw wood, or carry , a burden;' and those are services that earn a less reward than are given to organisers of industry or experts in the professions. It is the law of supply and demand that is at the back of the phenomena that breed resentment in the less well, endowed —the same law that makes the prize orchid .dearer, than the. field daisy. There; is • nothing, divine: in discontent- With; that law, as. there .is nothing- divine in discontent with the law of gravitation. Arid to hope to overcome that law, and to secure' .that, no roan shall receive more tKh>n "another, is as vain as-to hope that man .can learn to lift himself by his •boot-straps. ~ . ' \ ■ ;'