WHAT IS A DAY'S WORK?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 299, 13 September 1919, Page 7

WHAT IS A DAY'S WORK?

Wl.r\T A MAN OAN DO WHEN Hli ' LIKES. (By T. C. Bridges, in the "Daily -Mail.'') "It is, alleged .that in a typical industry—bricklaying—l2oo bricks aro laid per day in the United. States, while in Great Britain , '. . the figure is now only about 4fio a day."—l'he "Daily Mail," July 3.

Four hundred and fifty bricks a dayl Yet in the ye.ar 1903, when tho great lleise.v Tunnel power station was being built at Birkenhead, and the inon were induced to show, what they really could do, the average, per manjrose to 1976 bricks a day. At Ncasdon, too, and other-places, British worimcn, have proved that, if they will, they can easity beat American averages. What is a day's'-work?. A farmer will tell you that to plough an -acre in a. day with a one-horse plough is worth a day's wages. It means a mattor of fourteen hours' tramping at the tail of the plough. With a heavy two-horse plough tho ftir,mw is wider and the distance reduced to ten miles. But the work is harder, and if the soil is properly inverted, showing the shear 'mark on top, an acre a day is still good work. In the matter of harrowing ton acres a (lav is good. I have myself harrowed ten acres with a six-foot Acme; harrow in half a day, but that was with quickwalking nni'.es. •. Waiters work bawl. Wearing a pedometer, an instrument which measures overv step taken, a waiter found I hat in one day he took M,OOO steps, averaging 27J inches in length, making a total of something over ffi miles', Still on the subject of walking, in April, 1914. a detachment of tho London Ride Brigade inarched' from London to Brighton ill 14 Injurs 23min.: the actual marching lime was 12 hours IlSuiin., and each man carried a kit weighing. 421b. Some work, as our American friends would say. Our rijai production per man employed has declined"from 280 lons lo 220 lons during the pnsl. ten years, In the same space of time (ho AmerirJin production, lins risen from 5<K) to 080 Inns, To show what a collier can do. .Tnlm Mnl'ins. of Hemphill, ' Pennsylvania, piiliec! and loaded (591 tons of coal ijotween August 15 and September 15, 1917. Iluliius's wngn= for the month wcro .CS9 1(3?. 7(1. lie earned them! Rritish workmen can do just as well. Take the ca.«o (if Ihe man who, saving eiidence before the Loudon munitions Tribunal in November, 19315, stated that, he Wl mado 78 shells in pix hours, a feat nover previously accomplished. And what about our rivet champion? Tl was William Moses, of fairness, who, on May St, 1918, set up the record of drhing 5891 rivets in one day. thereby beating the American record, of tho previous day, which stood at 5029.

Oh, yp.s, our men can work iusl. as welt as tho.v have fought. Once get that, wicked- and cruel fallacy of "Go easj" out of their heads and Britain's output can beat tho rest of the worid, man for man.