WAGES AND THEIR RESULTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 August 1923, Page 4

WAGES AND THEIR RESULTS.

A STUDY IN I'XOXOM K -. No one perhaps is more entitled to speak, from the point of view of the employer, of wage.- ami organisation of labour than Mr Henry Ford, the manufacturer of the motor ear which hears hi-, name, lie has lately put into hook I from Ihe slor\ of the development nl j Ids works. Tito limsi interesting part i hi the eeeimmisi i-, hi- relation of his j gathering together of his -tail' nl workji r- and Ins discussion of uag“s. (.1 .what wages should really lie. of what wages are really earned, and of the I value which machinery gives to wages.i Of hi- experiment in fixing wages well above tlie market rate and of its results he writes: "In Rill, when the plan lirsf went info effect, we had M.IMItI employees. and it had been necessary to hire at the rate of about dd.OiKi a year m order to k. op up a constant force of I 1.000. lii It;Id we had to hire only ■ siIS men, and the majority ol these m-w men were taken mi because of the growth of the business. With the old turnover of labour ami the present force we should have to hire at 111* rate of nearly lf(IO,0(!(l a year, which would he pretty well an impossible proposition. liven with the minimum of iustrm-l ion lhal i- requital to master almost any job in our place, we cannot take on a new stall’ each morning or each week or each month ; for, although a man may qualify for acceptable work at an acceptable rate of speed within two or t hree days, he will he able to do more alter a year's experience than he did at the beginning. The mailer of labour turnover has not since boDicred us. Ii is rather hard to give exact figures, because when we are not

running to capacity we rotate some of the men in order to distribute the work amongst the greatest number. This makes it hard to distinguish between the voluntary and the involuntary exits. To-day ive keep no figures; wo now think so little of our turnover thill we do not hot her to keep records. As far as we know, the turnover is somewhere between .’I per cent and II per cent per month.”

What would happen were all employers to adopt the scheme of .Mr Fold of paying well above the market rule? The new wage would become the market rate. Would there he the slabilily in the labour lorry which Mr Ford hits found? It (lie higher wage were not followed by an increase in the cost of living, then I lie viability might follow. If stability through its leading to a reduction in i os I s eniinl oracled the payment out of higher wages, then there would he no necessity to increase tlu* price of the commodities produced, and cost of living would not increase. But which would commence first? There would not he stability except the cost of living remained constant—that is,

so far as wages costs are concerned. Wages value would not remain constant unless stability were attained. WHAT IS A LIVING WAGE? On the subject of a living wage Mr Ford is just as interesting. He asks: "When can a wage lie considered adequate? How much of a living is reasonably to he expected front work? Have you ever considered what a wage does or ought to do? To say that it should pay the cost of living is to say almost nothing. The cost of living depends largely upon the efficiency of these is the stun of the efficiencies of production and transportation: and the the efficiencies of the matiageefliciency el these is the sum of ment and the workers. Goon work well managed ought to result in high wages and low living costs. If we attempt- to regulate wages on living costs we get nowhere. The cost of living is a result, and we cannot expect to keep a result constant if we keep altering the factors which produce the result. When we try to regulate wages l»y the cost of living wo are imitating a dog chasing iLs tail. And, anyhow, who is competent to say just what kind of living we shall base the costs on? Let us broaden our view and see what a wage is to the workmen—and what it ought to be.” Naturally, with the living wage the subject of machinery and its influence upon employment and wages is raised. Machinery is hut the culmination of organisation, and it is an organisation which has made modern production so much more massive than the production of former times. Has that massive production increased the Inlying capacity of I lie worker? In the opinion of Mr Ford. "It is self-evident that

a majority of the people in the world tire mil mentally—even if i hev ar\ physically—capable of making a good living. That is, they are not capable of furnishing with their own hands a sufficient quantity of the goods which ibis world needs to he able to exchange their unaided products for the goods which they need. I have heard ii said —in fact. I believe ii is quite a current I bought —llntt we have taken skill old ol work. We have mil. We have put in skill. We have pm a higher skill into planning, management, and tool building, and the results of that skill are enjoyed liv the mail who is not skilled. We have to recognise unevenness in human menial equipment s. If every job in our place required skill the place would never have existed. Sufficiently skilled men to the number needed could not have been frained in a hundred years. A million men working by hand could not approximate to our present daily output. Bui. more important than ilia!, the product ol I lie unaided hand of those million men could mu, he sold al a price in con sona nee with buying power. And. "ven if ii were possible to imagine such

an aggregation and imagine its man apemcnf and correlation, just think of Urn area il would have to occupy. How many men could possibly he paid more than II) or J!) cents a day - lor, of course, ii is not the employer who pays Ihe wages. He only handles 11'.o money. Il is Ihe produet that pawlin' wage.-, and it is the managemenl that arrange* the production so Ilia! i iic product may pay the wage ."

ECONOMY Or LA ROE R-'--A Y INC A! At II INERT.

Describing a typical instance of ;o .- chincry displacing hand work. he write.-: "In a little dark shop on a side street an old man laboured for yens making axe liar. lies. Out of s-ea jilted hickory lie fasliio::.'.! them with the help i I a draw shave, a chisel, and a supply of sandpaper. Carel’nlly was each handle weighed and balained. No Iwo of 1 hen: were alike. The curve must exactly lit the hand and must conform to the grain oi need. Emm dawn In dark lhe old man laboured. Ills average product was e glil handles a week, for which lie received a dollar and a hall each. Ac I often some of these were -uus.tleab'c-.-because the balance was i><,i true. To-day you can hay 1 tdler axe handle, made by machinery for a lew (cuts. \ud you need not worry about lhe balance. They are all alike, anil every one is pci feel. .Modern method-, applied in ,i big way have not oalv hroaghl the cost of axeha mil" - dow u to a find i f iic •< tormcr cosl. hut they haw tnonciisciy improved Ihe product

Aii.wcring ihe qitosl i.qi. wli.at would become "I all lhe workers if laboursaving India d- winch lie advocates wit ■ .codicil everywhere - Mr Ford write- : "The qcesimn is entirely tea sona 1 I-,, but it is a lull,’ curious that it sir,a!.l lie asked. For when were men cier really ;,ui of work hy the hollering of imluslrial processes:- The stagecoach drivers 10-i thd;- jobs with the i "tiling ol the railways. Should wc haw prohibited the railways anil kepi tl.c -i egc-coach drivers? Were tin. r’ mere men working with the .-lege-coachcx, than arc workh: ; on Ibe railway- ? Should \e■ ■ have prelected the tax.cah because its coming to.:!; the breed out of the tnoitths o' the horreenh drivers? How dues the number of

taxicabs eimm ire wit h tin- naui'.er of herse-i ais when the Ini ter were in the.r .jruiv;- Tin- eonne; . f -hoe muelniii i v eh sr| most nl the -hops of thus,, kln made shoes l.y hand. When siloes were made by hand, only the very well-to-do inuld own more Ilian a single pair ol shoes, and most working people went hare foe ted in summer. Now. hardly anyone has only one pair of shoes, and shoe-making is a great industry. No, every time you can so arrange that one man will do the work of two, you so add to the wealth of the country that there will lie a new ami better job for the man who is di-phiecd. If wh.de industries changed overnight then disposing of the surplus men would he a problem, hut these changes do not oeeur as rapidly as that. They (nine gradually. In our own experience a new plate always opens for a man as soon as heller processes have I alien his old job. And what happens in my shops happens everywhere in industry. There are many limes more men to-day employed in the .steel industries than there were in lhe days when ev. rv operation was by hand. Id has to lie so. Ii always is so. and always will be so. And if any man cannot see it, il is because he w ill no! look beyond his own nose.” A- a commentator on the hook writes the ease for labour-saving machinery, or machinery which makes labour more productive, never lias been Gated more ell’erdivelv.