THE HONEST WORKMAN'S VIEW.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 17, 4 February 1937, Page 4

THE HONEST WORKMAN'S VIEW.

" There are mahy things the workman would like — a huihftli relation with his employer, an increase in wages, a better house, a full week's holiday every year on full pay, an inorease in his oldage pension and that it should be giVen him flve years SoOher— and, above all these things, security of employmOnt. But about universal security of employment he is mueh more doubtful; that would put the skrim-shahker on a par -with the honest workman/^ writes Mr Middleton Murry in the Adelphi in his contribution " On Believing in the Working Olass." His drOam o£ Security of employment for the good workman, which more thaii any other strikes him as the demand of simple jusfcice, is shattered by tha reality he knOWs. He does not, and feels he cannot, expect that an employer who is doing badly can keep him on at a loSS to himself ; it isn't reasonable to ask his boSs to do what he feels he Wduld Uot do himself. I believe that is a fair pieture of the natural attitude of at leasfc nine workmen in ten; and I feel also that it is a fundttmentally decettt attitude. It has its limitations — from the point of view of the impatient Sooialist, terrible limitations. But it is at least open to. questien whether it is not a more decent attitude than that wbich many Socialists try, in vain, to pump into him."