CASUAL LABOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 35

CASUAL LABOUR.

ITS WASTE AND REMEDY. SPEECH BY HON. DR FINDLAY. (Special to the Otago Witness.) WELLINGTON, September 3. The Hon. Dr Findlay, at the invitation of the Waterside Workers' Federation, gave an address in the concert chamber of the Town Hall to-night on the subject of " Casual Labour: Its Waste and Remedy." Dr Findlay spoke as follows : — " I am here to-night at the invitation of the officers of the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Federation for the purpose of discussing with you the subject of casual labour, its waste and remedy. The problem involved in this topic is one of the most difficult that meets the student of social progress. Its solution vitally concerns you. It concerns us all. Nobody can solve social problems by heated language or party invective. lam not here to deliver a political 6peech or advocate a party platform — that would, I think, be an abuse of your invitation. I want to speak to you to-night, not as a politician, but as a private fellow-seeker for some remedy for one of our persistent evils, that of the unemployment of casual labour. In recent addresses I have tried to impress the truth that national wealth production has steadily been yielding place as a cardinal aim of government to national want reduction, and the importance of this change justifies its being repeatedly emphasis d. " Few men on either side of politics will deny that the great social problem embracing all political questions is how to make in any State the greatest number of healthy, happy, self-supporting human beings. It is beyond question that the wellbeing of this number and not the increase of national wealth — which so often means increase of wealth in the hands of a few — is the true paramount aim of government. Unfortunately the teachings of economists and the policy of British 6tatewmen have in the past proceeded on the assumption that if you increase national wealth you must necessarily increase national well-being, and hence the British national policy has until recent times at least sought as its paramount object the growth of unlimited wealth in private hand?. To this policy is mainly due the doctrine of Frcetrade^ of laiseez faire, of unrestricted freedom o? contract, lie it the sale of a hor&e or of the labour of even the most defenceless class of workers. Economists taught, and statesmen dcclaied, chat England's greatness depended upon her wealth: that the growth of this wealth required cheap labour, since cheap labour meant cheap production, and cheap production would gi\e Britain tho control of the world's markets It was the application of such doctrines as these that gave our nation the industrial supremacy of the world 70 or £0 years ago. It is not denied that this policy enabled Great Britain to become the wealthiest of nations ; but need I remind any student of our industrial history of the price the nation paid for thio growth of wealth in the misery and degradation of the great ma.«ps o*f factory operatives and of casual labourers? " Increase of national wealth alone as a means of making the greatest numix?!of healthy, happy, eelf-supportincr people has been tried and found to be a failure. The old assumption that increased national riches necessarily meant increased national well-being i s falsified by the social condition« of great masses of the people in England even to-daj. It liae cf late bsen increasingly seen by both state=man and economists that tha old method of attacking the great social problem must be given up, and that it mu»t be approached from an entirely different end; that not wealth and its increase, but want and it« decrease must be the paramount aim of government and this chango has in\olvcd and is still involving radical alteration-? in the area and methods of government. T,r«*s than 50 y«a?c a^o m England tho po!ic\ of thj Go\c-rn

ment was still what has 'been called "administrative nihilism ' — in other words, a. policy limited to securing defence against foreign foes and to maintaining internal order. The duties of the State were summed up in three characters — those of the soldier, the policeman, and fche judge. Such an attitude was largely one of folded hands in the face of social misery and oppression. It let the iron law of competition work whatever results it would. It was, in short, a policy of State passivity, and if the two things are capable of comparison it produced even more widespread want than widespread wealth. The slow recognition of the facts I am here emphasising 1 has led our British statesmen to see that the social level cannot be raised by more wealth production on the o!d laissez fair© lines of government. The social problem, indeed, muse be attacked from. the other j end, and hence Mar Lloyd-George de- ! clares that the aim of the splendid legislation now before the British House of Commons is a war against want, and the diffeient propo&als with regard to old-age pensions, the unemployed problem, the housing of the poof, and the other present national movements for the uplifting of the people, illustrate the point I am now making. Britain has at last (really awakened to the fact that to raise the 6ooial level she must make the improvameni of men, women, and children, and not the increase of national riches, a direct purpose of 'State action. 'We intend- to drive the wolf of want,' says Mr Lloyd George, ' from the doors of every willing worked, as we have driven the wolf himself from the forests of England." A noble ideal even if only partially attainable. This change of aim has accompanied a clearer perception that a nation is not a collection of atoms or units, not a mere mass of individuals in umrestsicted competition, but a complex organised whole that has a collective life and health -to protect and pro-,, mote. Hence it bae been =een that intelli-' gent State action can be employed as one of the most effective means of reducing human want and waete in all its aspects, and that in th's way chiefly can the greatest number of healthy, harpy, self -supporting human beings be made. No better illustration can be found of the radical change which has taken placs in the old conception of the State's duty to the people than in society's modern attitude to the problem of the unemployed. CHEAP LABOUR. " Less than a century ago. and until almost recent years, it was the teaching of the orthodox school of Political Economy that a country, for its own interests, must have cheap labour power. David Ricardo and all hie school' taught that low wages were essential to national greatness. This mainly accounted for the strict legal prohibition so long existing in England against trade unionism and other combinations of labour seeking to increase the remuneration of the workers. So far indeed from unemploymbnt among large bodies of men being deemed- % social evil, it wa6 regarded as an economic advantage. In fact, it was frankly taught and said by economists and statesmen that a ltrgp quantity of surplus labour was an economic necessity. It meant cheaper production. Any 6tudent of the history of political science knows that what I am skating is historically absolutely true. Can it be wondered at then that j the State, while these doctrines prevailed, j felt no duty to relieve the plight of the | unemployed or by collective action jo re- I duce their numbers or assist them to find , work. This view indeed has been very slowly displriced, and there still prevails in the mind of many men of conservative instincts the con fiction that it is best to leavo unemployed workers, however handicapped, to find employment themselves, and if they cannot find it, why then let them go to tha vail, for the State has nothing to do with the working side of the life of the labourers. Hpppily, this doctrine of our nation is gradually disappearing as statesmen and economists ieco<rnise the fact that ite social system — paiticula.rly it€ industrial system — is itself largely the cause of genuine unemployment, and that socletv is under the clearest oblipaticn io remedy, so far as it can consistently with its own vital interests, the evils of its own creation. PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. " So much as T have said regarding the general aims and duties of Government has been said for the purpose of justifying my view that thib country, like any other civilised country, is bound to treat the problem of unemployment as a national one. and make the reduction, or rather, the prevention, of this evil one of its cardinal j aims. I say ' prevention ' because the evil is not with us, as it is in England, a chronic one. Temporary unemployment of a email number of men here and there can never be wholly avoided, but the continued existence of a class of willing but unemployed workers can and must be prevented ' in New Zealand. It has been pointed out ! by .a recent writer that the problem of | unemployment lies in a very special senee j at Ihe very root of most other social pro- | blems. Society is built up on labour. It, i lays uron its members responsibilities which in the vast majority of cases can be met only from the reward of labour. It imprisons for beggary and brands for pauperism. Its ideal is the household of man. wife, and children maintained by the earnings of the iirst alone. The household ; is the n-p^'t of ihe citi/.ens-to-be, and ia thus the true nidus of Fociety"s permanent e«ist- ! encf For this purpose at least the houre- | hold should at all times have sufficient I food, room, and air; but how if the in- I come is too irregular to buy food and pay rent The children, till they themselves Ran earn a living-, must in law be supported by the parents. But how, unless the father ha 6 i-mploymcnt? The wife, co long as she is bearing and L'inging up rhildien. should have no other than her domestic and family tasks. But how. if the husband's *>arninfrs fail and she has to ffo out to work 9 Eveivwhere the sarpe difficulty I recurs. Evervwhen* reasonable soountv of , employment for the bread-winnei is the | br»s'« of all piivatc duties and all sound social action. " These considerations show us how false is the old doctrine that tho Plato has ! notlu'njr to do with the woiking- side of | the life of the people, that unemployment is no concern of the Government, nnd thaf if is in The b.es- in tenets of sorietv to let the out-of-work man sink of swim as unfeH^ved ocono'nio roiulif ions determine Th:s prim old doe'rine d.es hard Tt still r<s£Tard<; labour as a commodity 1' < m bar of iron or a barrel of cement. ' v, hose price the market should fix accord-

ing to the law of supply and defand, an 3 whose interest t o the State ends with ita wealth production. This docrine ignores he human end social side of labour. It overlooks the fact that it is not so much the wealth produced as thfc effect of its production upon the workers that is of the greatest interest to society. It is forgeful of the truth that without work they cannot discharge those duties o£ citizenship which are vital to the exist* once of society itself, and .that hence unemployment, so far from being no conotrn of the State, should be one of its chief} causes for solicitude. "'Tools and work to willing hands'must be the leading maxim of democracy.. The moral and legal duties imposed upon ' a man by society assume that if he is willing to do it he ' can get wprk; and ' yeb this assumption is often wholly un« justified These" facts have given rise to a steady growth of a sense of "public " responsibility towards the genuine unemployed, and of this the British' 'Unem* ployed Workmen's Act, 1905,' is a conspicuous proof ; and if a further proof is needed it can be found in the promise of the present English Government, madelasfe year, to introduce shortly a practical alternative «> the proposal contained in the •* ' Right to Work Bill ' then before the • House of Commons.- It? should not be necessary at this time of day .to impress' upon the - public mind the -demoralising.- in- _ fluence of unemployment. A close observer declares that unemployment frequently; proauces r . among other evils, inefficiency itself, and that idleness and deterioration are related as closely as poverty and drink. A .large employer of labour expresses the conviction that during any long spell of idleness His men invariably, deteriorate, in some cases the deterioration in efficiency^ is very marked, and he says that nothing has- a worse effect upon the men, their capacity and calibre, than a long period of want of work. One leading prison expert says that many men in his gaol would never have been there cojld they have secured steady employment outside. And he declares that tinemployment tends to make criminals of men who previously had been honest Selfsustaining members of the community. It is true that these observations are. made by and of men in the Old World, but the evil tendencies of unemployment are universal and can scarcely be exaggerated. ■ Human nature is much the same all the world over, and for those in long-enforced idleness Swtan generally finds something to do. Unemployment often means a double waste — not only a -vaste of production, but of+en a greater ivaste of capacity and character. So much for the «cvil — now for some consideration of its remedies. " I have no time for a discussion upon all the proposed remedies for general unemployment, and I desire to limit myself to considnriner a refnetfy for the unemployment of casual labour only. But first let me approach the remedy by a few I words of general application. - The first essential in devising any reffiedy is to carefully distinguish the genuine unemployed from "the clearly unemployable.' Tn ' this latter class is, of course, included the j men who are wastrels, those who are in- | corrigibly lazy and who do not want Work. It also includes those physically or mentally unable to do work in any calling in question. The classification is already { rigidly made in many progressive countries. Denmark and Belgium, for instance, show nothing but the utmost sympathy in an active shape for the genuine unemployed, while for the unemployable they have measures involving certain disciplinary treatment. The proper treatment of the unemployable is quite a different matter from the true problem of unemployment, but the dividing line is sometimes hard to draw. " The drink evil, for instance, is a factor in all questions of unemployment. Drink and unemployment act and react upon each ofcher — drink produces tunemplovment, and unemployment loads to drink. The reduction of either evil will undoubtedly help to reduce the other. Admitting as I do that a definite line between the unec-n-ploved and the unemployable is difficul* to draw, there is no difficulty whatever in deciding in many cases to which class a man unmistakably belongs. Sometimes a man is unemployable for no fault of hie own, as in the case of accidental injury or of inherited physical or mental dafecte, oftener hie incapacity is. due to bimeejf, and can be cured by proper treatment. In • Denmark, for instance, not only ,tihe unemployed but the unemployable are 1 classified. Those, wihose lives dkwlose , a. | certain degree of lawlessness, drunkenness, j and idleness, are treated as social offenders, - I and are put under restrain* and enforced discipline, partly for the protection ot society, but mainly for tihe purpose _of reforming and improving them.. lh» moment a man so treated shows nimsell willing to work, and behaves in a quiet orderly manner, his treatment is improved. [ He is transferred to one of the opjoer ' classes, and finally removed from ,all re- [ stmint and given a chance of earning hie i livelihood again as an entirely free worker. I Holland has three classes of farm labour co'onies for different classes of the unemHoyable, through which men pass to freedom after having been engaged u» forestry, agriculture, gardening, or one of the Various handicrafts. After long ex- [ p9iience of actual practice the advantages of these colonies has been -clearly established. It lies chiefly in the fact that vie whole environment of this class oi socia* derelict is absolutely changed. He is no . longer free to dissipate the proceeds of a few hour« O r days' labour in his ok* haun.fs. He is in the colony for a definite period, and his future depe<ndß upon bia conduct while there. In the second place his work is useful and humanising-, whatb&r it ba farming in" up-to-data methods, forestry, or skilled artisans worKj " These workers have in many cases their own band, their own library, some wage* to purcha^a luxuries, including tobacco, but excluding strong drink, and thus every fn^enhvo- ie 'offered a man to do fche best he can for his own reformation : I aun iun now, of course, advocating the intoroductiom cf any of the Continental methods hew." 1 bey "ar" nrobably unnecessary, but «nji .-indent of the*? methods (such as those employed in Belgium, Holland, or Denmark) mu-t -^c how courageously they aim at,^ and fiurcoid, in reduoing human waste. Th.i sr^nuin-p nn em ployed may be -divided into thi -»c- cla-se^ : — (1) Tho>v» unemplojed owin.g to changes in metho Is of industry or the dislocation <-f ce^-ation of a trad>e. Here the old emjjlmmrit h at an end, nnd the workers mi'-t. try and find a new or a differen* calling.

(2) "Those tinemplojie** owing id tern* poraryv depression in trade or owing to a severe winter. This winter, for instance, our carpenters have Buffered from the slackness of the building trade. (3) Those whose employment is, from lie bainire, seasonal or casual, such as that «f bhe % waterside workers. Different remedies may be expedient in ' these different cases, but owing to limils 1 of time I must confine myself to the last olas« alone — unemployment of casual labour, — and this brings me to the unemployment of the waterside workers. Every centre of waterside employment • requires fox its smooth working to have immediately available a larger number of men than it can employ regularly or even * . adequately. The work year in and year out is broken and -irregular, or, as ; <t is more generally called, "casual." One need scarcely explain that this irregular work necessarily meajis a poor and irregular income. In New Zealand the number of waterside workers is, I am informed by the Labour Department, as follows: — 'Auckland «. ... — ... w ... 899 Wellington. 1888 Ijrtfceiton (casual wharf 75, steve.dorea 390) ... ... 465 Punedin .«« w ~. ... «-• ... 234 Total w ~ ~. ... ... 3486 ''The whole- of these njen are never employed at any one- time.-" The .number idle varies with the shipping arriving and 'departing. ' Some of these)-' it is true, : fctwe almost ~ constant employment, but ! many have very broken time. Spreading ' the earnings lof many of them over a considerable period, thsy -average not more than 10s a week. The man whose earnings average bnt 10s a week is really unemployed, and applying this rule I am informed that in Wellington, for instance, this winter the unemployed waterside workers amounted to about 700, and in other centres smaller numbers, but the total was unusually large, as this winter has been a very bard one for the waterside workers. "This unemployment is more or less inherent in the character of a waterside worker's celling, and in that calling we find what seems to me a conspicuous exAmple of r class largely unemployed from no fault of their own. The unemployment is indeed not only largely unavoidable ; it is largely necessary for the smooth •working of our ports. ' " Now for a. word or two as to a remedy. I have in this case v*>ry little faith in artificial restrictions and regulations. If there are more men than thsre is work for them to do, no artificial arrangement or regulation can cure he evil of unemployment. What is wanted is some scheme by which more work of some kind is regularly provided — not a closer division of existing work. TEI3 REMEDY. "Now, -She problem to be faced in connection with waterside employment is shortly stated this:— How can that casual, labour- which fills only a portion of the waterside workers' time b.* supplemented n.y other . profitable employment so as to give him a living \xc<g.} or, what is the earns thing, give him tho means by which he .can maintain himself and those depending on him in reasonable comfort. Th? best remedy I can see for an unemployed water-side worker is to provide him with a hom9 and sufficent bind about it upon which he tnay employ his spare hours, days, or weeks in producing food for his own houeehold consumption, and, if he desires it, for sale. . I am well aware that this proposal is not new," but it is the simple and natural course that is often overlooked in social problems, and I think I am performing some service in bringing pointedly under your notion the success with which this remedy has been followed in like circumstances in other parts of the world. ■ Dr Findlay went on <o sho*. what had been done in this direction in Englandj America, Holland, etc., and proceeded to point out that in his opinion no further legislative measure was necessary to advance the same remedy. " Under ' The Workers' Dwellings Act, 1908," the Government is empowered to erect on land set apart or acquired under the ' act a dwelling for a worker's home and provide about the home five acres of land in eases of rural allotments — and rural land here means land not reserved for town or villages or other public purposes. " The act further provides that the j rental shall be at the rate of 5 per cent. ' per. annum on the capital value of the land and dwelling, so that if the land and dwelling cost. £500 the rental would be less than 10s a "week. Further provision is made in the same act for the tenants acquiring the freehold of such home on very easy terms, extending. if desired, over a period of 41 years, and an effective 'check is provided to prevent the homes from bping subsequently period with for speculative purposes. Tin* duty of the cities in such a matter as this seems to me at least as clear and urgent as the duty of the Government. Lot me illustrate this by reference to a few figures showing the progress of the City of Wellington. The unimproved value of the aro-a of Wellington City as constituted in 1891 was 3,440,1?2. It will be noted that I am giving the unimproved value only. In 1900 the unimproved value of thesame area (I am not including any ad.Htions made to the boundaries of Wellington, butilimiting my.self to a comparison of the value of precisely the same area) is - £9,598,785. Thus, in these 17 or 18 years, the unim-proved value of the land in question has inoreased by the enormous sum of £6,158,603. It is now nearly treble what it .was then. During this period of 17 or 18 years ,the population of the City cf Wellington as constituted in 1891 has increased by 27,536 souls. How much of the enormous increase in the. unimproved value of this city's lands—^amounting to over six million sterling — is due to growth and congestion of population? At least a great portion of it. Is not then city government in such circumstances as these entitled, if not bound, to pursue any reasonable policy xrhich will relieve this congestion. ? This may cost something, but those who have profited so immensely by that congestion might well allow some small part of that profit to be devoted to its relief. Let me illustrate this by the law proposed by tho 'English Government in the bill now beforo the English House of Commons. That bill provides that a valuation shall be made of the unimproved value of all lands (save fihoae below a certain small value) in tho kingdom, and ther^ after on 6ale by or on the -death of the owner he must pay the State 20 per cent, of the increment

of the" improved value. If that bill hod been law in New Zealand since 1891 the owners of the land iu_the city of Welling-^ ton would already, or in the near future,"" have paid about £1,000,000 sterling out of their unearned increment. The cost of providing 100 homes of the class I have suggested would probably not exceed £50,000, and this would do much to relieve existing congestion and improve the condition of the congested quarters. But the scheme as not one of charitable aid. It need cost the city nothing, for the rents from the homes will pay interest on all the outlay. Moreover, the establishment of 100 or mare of these email farms would add to the business and prosperity of tho city itself. A close observer of our land for settlement policy assures ue that he has ascertained that every settler placed on the land has given employment directly or indirectly to two persons off the land in transport, distribution, or production To some extent, if not to ths> like extern*, the cultivation and production of these smaJl farms would give increased employment not only to those on the areas, but to many in other callings in the city. " And now let me remind youthat I have ] not attempted to deal with the whole prob- , lem of unemployment or with the many I suggested remedies, but simply with what I believed to be the mo6t beneficial and permanent remedy 'for that large class of waterside 'workers who, from the nature of their calling, a.re exposed to the hardships and to the evils of casual and irregular occupation. I .further d<?sjre to make it clear that I am no*- here to deliver any new policy speech. I am not here to make any new proposals. That I have no power to do. I have been merely discussing with you a phase of the unemployed problem, and have shown that a desirable remedy lies in the existing policy end legislation of the present Government. Let me close with this reflection. Nature hue blest this country with abundant natural riches, with a productive soil with a glorious climate. New Zealand is in area nearly as laa-ge as Great Britain and Ireland. We are buit a million people of British stock, free, healthy, educated. How fortunately oituated we are as a people, and what" a future we should 6ecure if we did but use our opportunities .aright. But modern j social progress depends upon two factors, i upon intelligent State action and upon I genuine individual effort. State of collec- j tive acxion can do much more than it has yot done in New Zealand to uplift the level of social life and bring to each willing 1 j man and woman a better opportunity of I improvement in its ethical and material aspects, but in that growing partnership | (even in the ideal democracy) between the individual and the State the State must ever be the junior partner. If the State does more for the maintenance of its ablebodied citizens than it aeks them to do for, themselws it will inevitably breed a race of social parasites. The animal king- j dom (including men) everywhere shows j that parasitic degeneration' soon follows the removal of the noed of real exertion. A qrenuine spirit of self help must meet State help more than half way if we aro to preserve a strenuous and improving type of manhood. But granted this genuine and intelligent co-operation of the two agencies of progress — State help a.Tid self help — what can hinder this country from becoming, not th© richest, that ehould not be our cardinal aim, but the land where want and squalor, intemperance, and wasteful extravagance are unknown, and where the civilisation of our nation reaches its highest level in the widespread comfort, humanity, and enlightenment of the people."