DO ENGLISHMEN WORK HARD?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 259, 29 July 1919, Page 5

DO ENGLISHMEN WORK HARD?

IfcEAL SLOCf IK AMERICA. (By Morley lioberts, in the "Daily Mail".) We are told, and told triply, that we all have w worn mirdcr tlmn we over did. Young or old, man or woman, wo must j "put oilr backs'" into it.'An otu-fiKhioneil I "Government stroke" will not do any i more. Circumstances tell us loudly to I "gut a move on." | But do Englishmen work hard? They may work harilc-r than many, but do they really put their backs into it? It wiii be an unpopular opinion, but I do not think they do. I have rarely seen any but coal-wnippers on piecework doing half as much as tho American worker. This will make tho working mnn angry. I cannot help that. I am not one of those who abuse him, for I know 'that even the vilified plumber, who conies with a bag and goes away for something ho says he has forgotten, is only doing what, he is told to do by his employer, who mints to get hold of more jo'tjs than hi* staff can justify. But how can a. writer know what work is? Assuredly I shall be asked the question. I am continually telling those without the knowledge of work who criticise the worker that they do not understand the subject. But do I? A critic has to 6how reasons for the faith in him, and I think I can do it. 1 earned my living by my hands for eight years in Australia, America, and at sea. In 'Minnesota I once worked 36 hours without sleep. I worked on farms in lowa, in sawmills in British' Columbia, and on severnl railways as a section hand, or platelayer, and as ft mere labourer in rock-cuttings. During my life I have learnt, to handle the pick, bar, shovel, the sledge-hammer as a striker, I the felling axe and broad axe, ta men- 1 tion only a few of which I still know the tricks. I did these things for money and ii living, and worked alongside men of more than twenty nationalities. I. only mention these facts to show that if I pose as a critic I do know what hard work, strained muscles, and even raw and bleeding hands am like.

Work at sea is sometimes incredibly hard, and it is almost always risky. But, take it all round, British ships, are not run too furiously, to put it mildly. In Australia men- work wonderfully at times. But when I first landed in the United States I came to the conclusion that I had never really seen men work before.

The very first thing that drew my attention was a gang'working- in a street, and the impiession I got was that the boss had told them that if they worked very hard for a little while they might go home! I soon found out my mistake. Wherever I went 1 found work done in tho same way. If it was so in New York State, it was the same in lowa, Minnesota, and Illinois.

It is the common opinion of most American foremen or employers that while an Englishman is good material, lie has to be taught how to work. When I was on a Californian ranch I did work which on an English farm would havo occupied at least two men and a hefty boy. In saw-mills the pace is tremendous, and. uniil I became' used to it, by the time the knock-off whistle blew 1 was

"a-11 out" and almost.too tired to eat. On the Pacific Slope more work is l done in a sheii tiiuo than anywhere else in the world. I once took a job that, was too mud for -a sturdy Swede who had replaced au Englishman who threw it up. 'J_'h if. is the reason that high wage's are I«id. When production is Inrge and quick as well there is more to divide. It pavi, an American to pay a man three times English wages if he gets three times the work done. Ido not say it is always right for men to work so or to keep it up. In somo cases the pace is too hot. I once worked mv passage in a Puget Sound steamboat in which few men over twenty-six could "hold down" their jobs. They were not quick enough at running trucks up and down gangways with a l&wt. load. To cany on work like this may be wrong, and I think it is, but the fact) remains that many young men took on such work for a year or so and made enough money to- start at something e'se. An ordinary Euglish labourer .toulu decline a job like it at any/pricc. When I came tack to Engla.id « r ior being through the Western "mill" it seemed to me, that Englishmen took it easy, men and employers boi'h. Ihe oxecutivo staff seemed to think more of golf and tennis than of their business, while the worker shared his chief's view, thai the aim of life was to do as little as possible. I do not think that there is a single Englishman who has lived in America for any. timo and has learnt to wauc there who will not endorse what I sav and add to it much that I refrain from snjv.ig ,