FIDELITY TO DUTY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3006, 17 February 1917, Page 6

FIDELITY TO DUTY

TO "GO SLOW" SLACKERS

FAIR DAY'S WORK FOR FAIR ' DAY'S PAY By; way of intimating tho general lines of Jiis policy as .Commonwealth Minister for Works and Railways, Senator Lynch, (states a contemporary) has issuod a circular to tho officers of his Department. In it ho attaoks the insidious doctrino of the go-slow propagandists with characteristic 1 fearlessness. Ho says:— "The maxim is not vet -universally accepted thaA work ran be done as weil hy public as by private direction, yet work is work in either case, and if the same mental and physical effort is assiduously applied! in both, the results should be.. tlie same If the ancient gibo of tlio 'Government stroke' has any substanco in fact—and 1 am not yet''ready-to believe it, as I have worked as hard .and seen as hard work dono .iu public as in private service—then it is imperative that its cause be discovered and rooted out. No appreciable '&otk>n'"of'a! community can practise a slow stroke without directly causing the balance of that community to strike faster .to make up for their loss' ,of spued.. "Accepting for tho moment that, it is necessary to put the new Department on a basis of efficiency, 1 feel that threp essentials are vital to the purpose—there must be skill in design, competency in supervision, and energy in performance. A union of those essentials in thoir highest development, is a sine qua nou of economy and public satisfaction.

"But running through all these operations is tlio basic necessity of fidelity to duty. Men labour in varying degrees of intensity from an iiiward or outward fear. The person who gives the samo conscientious service to tlio. State as ho would do on his own behalf is a true citizcn and a whole mail. The person who gives fair servicp through fear of "external consequences ■(a .bad dictator of duty aft any . time) does well, but has less, merit on his side. ' But the person who deliberately gives grudging or mutinous service to tho Stato is a social parasite-, and an excrescence on citizenship. The Commonwealth should be the model employer, and to enable it to be that it should get model service. That.it is getting good service, as fur .as I am able to observe, I have no doubt. But that a persistent, und mischievous-attempt has been made to prevent faithful work from being done, I am certain. To those who give such hiiioidal adv'ioc, and those susceptible to it, I lyould point this out—that if a person is paid, say, 10s. per day, and il? rctidors but ss. worth of worlf 'for it, then somebody else haß to inako good his half measure. Ha is simply collecting ss. per day under false pretences, And if those dangerous individuals who openly prcach the iiisiijio doctrine of "slowing-down" gugcefid to any appreciable extqntj, thpu tl'Q inevitable outcome will be that tho }ingn standard will approach the mgney valno of thrj scryico given. In other words, no public: opinion will lojig stand paying more for its' work thau that work' is worth. On the other lnnid, if a person is given, says, 10/3. per d/iy, and he gives seiivioo worth 12s. or 13s. per day, then the undoubted effect must bo that tho wages will have an upward and' the system under which his position has been so vastly im-■■ proved more firmly embedded in pubjig policy. If - there aro any porsons in the Commonwealth employ who have mistaken notions about their duty in this regard, to tiieui I would say what I never.foiled to. say. publicly in WpsU ern Australia, that wliqu a person gob a' fair wage for his work ft was Tiis bouiulen duty to give a fail? day's work in return. If he did ,not, he Was his owa worst enemy, and the pnemy of his fellow-workers as well. "I am here to,hold tlio scales evenly between thogp who pay the wages hill' and those wj/q rely pu that bill for a. living. From pergonal experience I tow there are thousands helping to pay that bill who aro worse off than those receiving; but it will bo my lixed aim, regardless of consequences, to measure to each according to his deserts."