AN HONEST DAY’S WORK

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2283, 31 May 1921, Page 2

AN HONEST DAY’S WORK

‘‘NEVER before has human conduct produced such variations in business away from what wc are accustomed to consider a normal course,” said Mr J. K. Alexander, president of lho National Bank of Commerce, in New York, in a recent address. “It is a question of the personal attitude of man towards his job.. Wo see nations still sniggling and lighting one with another. Within nations we see Labour still creating turmoil, while the attitude of employers is not always what it ,-hould be. Too many people to-day hope and expect something will bo done for them, although their interests would best be served by their doing a full day’s work for their pay. The fundamental principle of enlightened Labour leadership today should be to inculcate a return to the doctrine of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Workers cannot, in the long run, consume more than they produce. ]f wages are 100 high in relation to the exchange value of the product, wages must come down, for no wage can be permanently maintained at a point above what it is worth measured in terms of other products. Further, employers must not seek to drive wages , below their true value thus measured. There is this reciprocal personal responsibility involved in the relation of workers and employer." —on the one hand to lender ellicient service for every dollar demanded, on the other to render over to Labour every dollar earned. A return of social stability rests upon recognition by liolh nations and individuals that reconstruction can come only by hard work, that business can endure only cm the basis of a sincere discharge of obligations, whether they be in the form of executive duties or in the form of day's labour, and that e< high "on.-e of personal responsibility must prevail in all the relations ot life. The most frequentlv-asked question of the day is when wc may expect a return of normal business. Forecasts based only on technical business considerations are- worth little. The rebirth of normal business awaits a new attitude of man towards his job.”