INDUSTRY AN SOCIETY

Hokitika Guardian, 14 October 1921, Page 4

INDUSTRY AN SOCIETY

{I iy Hr nest ,J. 1\ Ilcnn.) To understand the dilfcrcitices between industrial problems as they present themselves in America and as they affect us here, it is necessary to Ro deep down into the foundations of the social structure in both countries. !i industrial difficulties wore concerned (inly witb the manufacture and the marketing of goods, if in the discussions between the various parties 't were possible to sweep aside all considerations other than those which ha.*e direct bearing upon the business of production, if wages and hours and conditions were really the only things in our minds, thou there would surely be very little trouble in the industrial field. Our difficulties in Kugfand anrendered greater from tin* fact that these things are to some extent merely reactions from greater forces working in a wider field. When the British trade unionist meets the British cm plover he starts with a prejudice arising from the fact that he belongs to a different social class, but when the .American workman meets the American employer, it never incurs ;«» him that there is any social differen - and indeed, he can never dismiss Iron his mind the fact that tie* emplov t was once* a workman himself, and lit the workman will, in the ordin try bourse of events himself Hrmnc an employer, it is undoubtedly ton thorns easy to pass from mu* social eb»to another in America as it is lew the harrier between the classes eitho* do not exist at all, or are so llim*> as to present few difficulties to tho r who would pass over them. The Americans make great use of t' • writ I "/'it iy.en” and attach a very slu

red importance to it. l r rom the P’esident downwards, everybody is a ‘Vitiand there is no attempt to classify t hem a s we should do. There is of course, an American aVistocrucv. but it does not depend upon a Hmiv • of Lords, upon an elaborate system o;‘ precedence. upon titles and coats-of-arins. and, 1-east of ell. has it anythin*: to do with heredity. One must understand these tilings if the point ol vi " of the American labourer is to lie ,tj preciated. He will not join in ». volution to pull society down, lor t’m very simp!*' reaMHi that to him soeiH.v is a convenient and sensible arrangement, to enable him. humble labour-' that he is. to climb a little higher, or in the minds of most of them, a gr** r deal higher

The Kuropean visitor to the I’ni'-d Stales is at lirst a littl«* endian ? by the absence of those sn< ial tli>tin tions uj’oii which he can ilwa.v* M‘ly in Kurope to eii-ure liim a comfortable passage and to flatter his sense of *mporlanee. it is a little disconcert tag to be addressed by a porter in a <’«»"- toms slied as if one were a social equal if not a social inferior. One can tolerate rudeness on tin* pari of an Knglisli portier. because one leels, alter all. that it is merely his way of balancing a social inferiority of which he :s tin* victim. But to saunter out of tin luxurious state looms of the Aquftania audio hear a nigger truckman explain a colleague “that this man wants his baggage checked.” gives at lirst a sense of shock, the nigger might surely call one a gentleman, he will presently expect a tip. and a tip to an Knglislnnan is tin* reward of servility The American nigger, however, will • fer no servility, and demand double the tip that any Knglislnnan would regard as appropriate. When, as von become more accustomed to tho ways of America. you discover the railway porter

lunching by your side in one of tho popular reslauiants and distributing his tips with the same liberality that he has extracted from you. you acquire by degrees a sense of Ufi> fit nos ~f things, which does not lit in at all with tilings as we know them in tk*s country.

After a time, one’s sen e of manliness is enhanced by this definite degradation from the status of a gentleman to that of a man ; the hell captain at the hotel tells the errand-boy to “take this man to room •!2704'\ the porter at the door tolls the taxi-driver that ‘‘this man wants to go to lßßth. Street West.” Mv last experience* of London wn.s a haughty intimation from a waitress in a tea-shop, who declined * o he moved by my appeals for help, t’i t “the other young lady would he here presently.’* So one gets l;cit4i ends ol the story.

The perfect social eqeality which t'*e Americans have achieved or rather, which they have never lost, is in no way ; fatter illustrated than by the rules at the White House itself. 1a ' visitor walks right into the “resident •• residence without asking auyl-t <lv. !’ * wanders through t-Lo dillej'iit apa inients and inspa'cts the jd: lures ind the furniture, while the President himself does his daily work in an office In i little annexe ere led. near the -tre't. for the convenience of callers. I mvself, stood with i little knot of a dov.er people at the front door of the \\ 1 House in order to raise <»“r h ts L«* Airs Harding as she came out for h:»* morning driv<*. The White Hen-e. wait i< true, dosed for one afternoon while I was in Washington, tin* oee*sion being a garden party given by the President and his wife. As 1 w.**honoured by an invitation. 1 iuiaginrd that 1 might perhaps see a little til or*' of the President's residence than I had already inspected as a mere member of the public, but 1 was disappointed. 1 bad an interesting 'eh:»t with •» policeman on this occasion which throws a world of light on the subject of socid equality. The policeman had served foil’s years in the White House and his dutv was to watch over the* recenti it)

rooms. It appears that during tin* Wilson adtuiu.ist ration a suggestion w.m made that the drawing room should U railed off to prevent the boots of ‘be public from doing damage to the parquet floor. The policeman put in iis resignation as a p:ntest Localise, as be said, he “could not stand there uid tell American citizens that thru could not walk on their own lloor.” tin* railing off project was not carried through. Little tilings or rather big tilings 'ike this, are the whole explanation of the the absence of a Socialist Labour Party in America and, while we in England are never going to part with those refinements of habits and customs which have ,-ome to n> frym hi-torv. w<- can learn something from ti e < t’-er estrew* as exhibited in t l -* !'** ; t< ! State . It, deed. f think* ve .‘sc *• • tiling. On: • •otionn H• IH• * 1 1» • * 'p l get |e>s and !• -s aeufe .i- sv r--< ! ridding imi’v Iws of b J, t wbi -b is oid j*i ot:i s.-idal ;nTcngeinents. With ni l losing all these finisbing touclp*s which add so much to the joys of life, we can .sorely dispense with social distinction- which aee merely n-rd .-s harriers to cmi lia-'ise class differences an *

inflame cla<s antagonism. A great deal is already going on in this direction. The Luke of York's eanm at l.itl'estoiic is merely an indication of a great movement w hich will it is to la* hop-* l. liansform our way of looking at th *sc things The Dukt* lias arranged a <-atnp of I’OB boys seh'cleil from industrial works in all parts of the country, who are to meet and live under : .nva> with !?()() hoys of similar ages from the lending public schools, including I'ton and Harrow. Thus l(T.) members of the coming generation will earr.v witb them f« *:■ their lives a knowledge of the* thoughts and aspirations of another class, which will make it difficult for any of them to eutciluiii viclcnt views with regard to otn* ;mctlier. The Tndiistral League, week-end movenient is yet another example of the same sort of effort, and wherever one looks one sees a desire to break down sot ial distinctions ami xiih-i itute social cqmilitv. Tbc effect in the Lnited States of a perfect social equality is to create a universal desire to bn I l • p. b’he low-

est of the eitzens lias a vested interest in tile social order. One the other hand the effort of rigid social barriers and definite social classification in Ragland is to make large masses of tile peojile believe that they are the enemies oi tin' social order and desire to break up. Industry has to hear the brunt this trouble, and the social order and desire to break it no. Industry has to hoar tile brunt of this trouble and the social order is attacked through wages and ‘Va-canity, ' and the interest of industrialists in the manners and customs of society thus becomes rnther more apl-arent than is often recoin The Chemical Aye. London.