WORK WITHOUT LABOR

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1921, Page 4

WORK WITHOUT LABOR

(By Ernest .1. |\ Bonn.) While* \vc aiv busy making jobs, sharing out work, inventing now excuses for employment and trying to make 'positions for two wJipiv thorn are only ono, America i s making the most astonishing progress in the .science «f ’‘work without hi hour ! * Everybody ore?* there is keen on ])ieduction. and willing to put forward any amount of effort to fiet it ; but that effort is generally made hv tin* brain, and not by the muscle. The labourin'; man is fast disappearing. and the worker would be more correctly described a> a director of machinery.

I visited the most up-to-date of the .Steel Trust's winks al Gnry. and hoped that 1 sio tin* American breed of the mighty smith, bare to the wai-t. st* uojilinu; with the white-hot metal and moulding it at Ids will. ! wn.x taken into a ■ oft of miniature Crystal Palace. 7ol)fi. lonj; and about. 200i'l. wide, the {(nor of which wits one solid mass of moving rollers. I walked alonjr a gallery or bridge, the wind'* length of this buildinir. Tiie floors at the cud opened, and a hue.* crane ap-

peared cUTviiie; a 2-ton lump of whiter hot steel which almost seemed «!< M it had befit trained to know its business.

First it was gripped by a pair of ?na•••• sive rollers, wliieh flattened il in oin* direction, then passed over more of the j moving floor to the next pair. v. liich flattened it the other way. On it seed thrmiidi a lone sincchsmn of i(dl«:*s and moulds until on reach in*: the end of the building it- had assumed l) <* shape of live loll*! bars. The automate* rollers pitched these to the other* sid*• of tin* buildim.;. where they proceeded to chase one another thmu«ili a furtlie?* series of processes until they arrived hack at the doors out of which the steed had come, ami placed themselves, as if they were used lo il in a rnilwav truck as finished steel rails. Xobndv lifted anvlhin«!. nobody sweated, nobodv suffered fatigue: a score of men. dotted about the mills* pressed buttons and moved levers, and e*u*h took a dollar and a half for dome it. \n even more wonderful suiht is to see the makimi of rail wav wlmeU. with no more

hard labour than it takes t«» drive an. aiitoimdfile. (Treat maehities like motor ears, i mining oil rails with Inure arms whieli gripped the metal, lifted it fi*oin one furnace to another, deposited it uiid'-r each of a stoics of stamps, and handed over to the machine •Awm for fini.shinjr. All run by a man win, sits in the scat of a hu«e motor with rather more pride and about, the sam** mount of work, as the average chauffeur in a Pnlp-Koyee. best it should 1.0 thought that rile latest plant of the Steel Combine is .somethin'; exceptional, other examples can be found at every turn to diuw the determinalion of t)»e Americfl.n w*irkers themsidves to reduce |;ilmur to a minimum. The chambermaid in the hotel wheels about a waeoii which is ;.•* linns ol’ appliances for cleaninji the mom in a hurry: she connects the flex to the electric 1i lt I»t and sweeps the du:t> and dears in a fraction of tin* time that would by by Ku.lc-li-h metliod-. Klein tors all over Anc-ri-a are somethin- which we li.i idly know |,»*m . ITie.v work at ii raU* which no solf-respeci.ino lift-man would tolerate. But the American lilt-man does very little work: In* alnio't invariably sits mi a ••a* ol and pildies b?lti»»lls. lie presses will? the .r |e| 11 foot a till the ojile opens, with the left fn.u and it closes, and I'ej-forms two or three journeys up and down the 2o tloors in h-s time that it •e neriil takes the tub” lift to move one way oiler Kvrn the work of v.heelin'! a harrow or a trolly is considered !;etieiKh the dignity of ;s self-respect in* American labourer, and tin American factories are almost all equipped with deetide inotoi trolleys run about in a manner with which we are familiar at a lew of our badiuo railway stations. When "e introduced women into ~neinceriii” ilurilli! t]! t » war. wv did a rival deal to improve our method-; in those respects. but it cannot lie < lainn d that we have dune away with liftin'! and carryine; wbik- in America it would he almost true to make that claim if tin* worker wants a motor to carry him. as most of them do. it i* m*t likely that he is -mine t,, degrade himseif in wori-iit«! hours by can \ in-: bulky w cijdi ts ahoitl.

Ti'nwiling niii riors, Imtli oi'oi In*.id and 1111* loffoo t. and moving hamls an 1 In 1,0 found nut only in ovi'i'v lanlor; hut in many of th,> othnos. ( Ivurhoad ur uiuh'i'funi, or ljuth. siiinoihiug is moving all tin* tinio. Tlio . lioupnoss of i loot I'ii- i nn'oiit Inis a good iloal io <lo with this dovolopmont. I saw sovoral -lon-shops, nr lunoli-slni|.s. as they ai*i alh'il. with oimtinunus lilts oariying dirty cups and platos tu tin* washing miioliiiios in llto hasomom. Ilm v.witI'tssos tras's aro all of oim sign, whinli 1 hoy push in to mining slits and autumatinally disapui'ar lu'luw. I found a puhlishof’s oilin' widi a oimtinuously moving i-novas hand wliii li f*arri*'d llm hooks to Iho iKloking I'ountor and hark again to tin* postal hnx. fn imr d*ar old (Oiinlty. sotuo union ur iitlmr would no (loul't ulviont that the hand was doing tln*ir work. I.ut in Amorioii nhoiv imliislrv has a siiumh r oi'iuumiio fmindatimi. uohody is willing In do any work that i-an ho aholisiusl. Amorioa is vry lmsy rminima!; ing. Tim nm>m*s ul Hu* war poriml an* lioavy anil tho domain! lor now loads insistniil ('iiimi'oto is tho fashiuintlilo malorial. Imt tin* moriiaii wurk'inaii will not liriiii'an himsolf In mix rninm to. 1

siipposo I mu-1 Ii avo -non a humh'oi oom rolo-making maoliiuos in lily shot' stay in various oitios. I was pari imr I.ills' 'trunk ss ith a small t s ,«• uf nun I -rot o juixor, not munh higgn'r than i a largo Irnok. usod fur mixing omu roti fur siih* walks.

Whi'HT'T one huiks mm linds ..vidnni i uf this si'll'' dnt.'riniluitiiin to s:n» la11.uii' mul got rid of work, 'llu* polmi I'urin might jinrhaps bn fugardud alii, giinii* foi' joli making; miliody nan ~l,ji*nt to a fi*u *'\| ct polini'iimn. and ; ij,:. 1 1 from (.ncasiimal itscifumnnl. tin* |uiiii'.*mmi’s is a |ih*;is:ini nnoiigli Jiff fur a man who is not worrind with an ovnr dosim to h.* i*n.*rg.*ti.-. Tin* ti'allin in most Aniorioim oitios is siiffi.*i>‘til ly dons** to waiTimt tho oniphiymom.

with 11 s. of two men al the rross-rnails. to hold up tile stream in each direction. Imi American iioliienirn are not willing to lie wasted in that way so one constable stands in the middle el the ( .ressinc operating a simple signalling device which fells tile driver w het her they are to “stop" or go.' Talc tie' railways. The railwavmen are organised into a hrothorlinod. ami if Knglish ideas had any intluenee with them, have tin- power so to arrange matters as to necessitate Hie etnplnynielli iif over-increasing quantities ol men. Vcj one sees no porters ell American railway stations. I waited fur a quarter el' all hour at a imielioii 011 Hie line from \ew Vnrk to I'hiladelphia watched five trains come in am! go out. and never s aw 11 porter al all. The hag-gage-eheek system makes luggage purlers iinneeessarv, and tin- eflieieiit American woman does not, want a eouple of porters In help her ill and out ol the train.

These are simple illustrations given with a view In emphasising the totally different attitude of mind in Kngland

and Amorioa oil this question uf wod* and production. Kir Robert Hnnu* tuh the Urui.se of Common.? the other da*, thill ‘'a juli must Iv found fur es-my hr.tly.’’ II" vuuld nut have said any tiling so impossible in A morion. lit.*; don’t mulorsland the svord ‘'iuh" n the sense svhieli it inis as.iinm.l ii roeont soars sviih tm. and a posit imt it sshieh soinolindy swill pay sutifi'iil; ode some wage.-, inospootivo uf ss'liat i dune, or where tho is ages noun* ft uni

is otitsith* tho I'umprohoiision of dm avorago A morionn. Wo Ituvo hoeu mi nurtured in tho solum! ui "hhl fur Id. ni stoopo.l in tin- niiiinn that s'.isiitii and work wore lixod i,until it ios svhioh must I," sharod out. that it L .lifficiilt to grasp tlm Unnioaii point of slow. |,ul il wo aro over again in a position lo Inis' Amorioan goods, if 11 1 *" handoap of |!m Kxohaiigo and tho am i-dumping ,*. strict ions or,. oWareil mil ol tlm v ay.

WO shall as-ur.aliv fool it, olfeots ii luainmr Unit will tint no agrooaht" Tlm Ommioal A .*"<•. aiaaswM®'