VOLUNTARY NATIONAL SERVICE

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 6 July 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

VOLUNTARY NATIONAL SERVICE

ITS MJSTAKES AND ITS PERIL. By Arnold Bennet in the London "Daily News." One of the foremost journalists in merica, a man who had been in every Jligerent country and on most of the onis, said to one of the highest ficials of our Ministry of Munitions, bo was bewailing the lownesa of effiency percentage in factories: " You're :pecting too much. You're getting amt fifty per cent, of a possible output, id you think you ought to get eighty. ju won't get eighty. I'll tell you my inest estimate of the German efficacy percentage. About fifty-two. Things have improved since then in •itain, if not in Germany. The head of a vast department of unitions said to me last week : " Tho rmy will want a certain number of ?n this summer. Those men will have bo taken from essential trades. My tint is that taero > s an enormous mar. n of productivity in the essential ades. The men left in the essential ides, after ev.ery recruit has been ken, coidd by tiierc,solyas produce all at is needed for the war —if they proced up to the limit of their capacity. The official who said this to me has wit his whole life in industry, and he nnot be charged with any anti-labour ejudice. HE EMPLOYERS AND IHE EMPLOYED. It is ridiculous to exclaim witli right. us indignation: "Of course! CV any! ' why will not the men tmderind that tho very existence of the npire depends ,''etc., etc. It. is ually ridiculous to blame the men iu-,-iduaily, the trade unions, or the eni>yers. Tho state of affairs has grown • it represents a stage of evolution, d "C.v canny" (historically quite excable) is only a very small part of it. lave special opportunities for learn- >• what, really goes on inside a big •tory. In my opinion the employee;, th male and'femab, are-to Warn,?, as man nature is to blame, for slackness lilo a small, perhaps a very small minty, is guilty of wilful bad faith, lich iu these days is equivalent to se,ion. And I could bring exactly the ne charge against the employers, at tho mass of the employees, works well, and is as conscientious and as triotic as tho mass of the employers, m absolutely convinced. What surprises me is that employees fer without protest under grievances ich persist, to this day. For example : through some negligence of min.o a >ewriter is put out of action, I can. ; say to a clerk: " This machine is ; working today. You will therefore b you day's wages." But a mun>nsr employer can and does say this to .workmen when through his n negligence another sort of chine goes wrong. I th) i wish to enlarge upon this rspect labour relations. I merely wish to nt out that it is part of the business National Service to promote tho jothness of lail>our relations, and that increase the efficiency of lalxmr actIy at work is at least as important as go about seeking in unlikely places fresh labour. WHY STRIKES OCCUR. 'herj are things which one cannot about the labour situation just now. en important items of home news iear in one paper and not in another, ?n a whole branch of news entirely from all papers (Ultaueously, the pubic may divine t the. oath of the journalist is stony. ; as the news of the temporary endol the Tyno strike was published , Saturday,'l venture to assert that i one strike lost immensely more lar to the war than Mr. Neville ChamLain with the expenditure of scores housand'J of pounds has up till nowcured for the war. And why did strike, occur? The strike occured wise the men had failed in four iths to obtain any settlement of a ticular dispute. But when they ;«-k the Government 'promised setnent in a week! he sense of perspective is lacking, onlv in high quarters, but in the era! public, when such neglect of vital kind of administration, and i extreme lime-lighting of another less vital kind of administration, simultaneousiv come to pass. A ilar lack of the'sense of perspective he general public, if not in high rters, is elsewhere noticeable. The \h is intensely interested in the tug-,-ar between the Army and agricul- \ but I doubt if it gives a thought he fact that ai.iple dock labour and improvement methods of loading unloading shios are quite as urgent he cultivation of arable lands. If ip by speeding-up in dock can make ■ round voyages instead of three in «ar, the effect on the food problem e same rs if wle t to the aimrnt of cargo capacity had been grown in land.

ATIONAL SERVICE WEEK. lis is National Service Week. The lent mav seem ill-chosen for returnto criticism of th?: National Service me: but things ar.:- what they are, Lgh Governments like to pretend the miry. For myself. T hope the Week hi successful, but that does not 1 me to the significance of the fact the Week had actually begun both e general public knew that it was emplated. T have said Kofor.\ and y airain, that; Mr. Neville Chamberis an able and conscientious man. y further that he has l>een vcy liisly handicapped. He started out an office, without a staff, withinst.ructions, without a plan, and out tl',o mean-, of guidance; and he the War Office against him. I say that ho has succeeded better in land, where !>•• was not hampered the War Oflie \ than in England ■0 he was. (Characteristic oi us. tlu-re should he two different inter, j-tmental arrangements, one for land, the other fi.r England!) tluat h • i.s improving, as witness ©cent appeal for women, which ha; y more common-sense than any of iippeais for men. 1 ACTIVITIES Of ST. KRMIX'S. .vortheless, I doubt whether Mr. lie Chamberlain will ever shine as riraniser. His hitchiy its"ful oapalies in another Held than that of organising. Tho atmosphere of the irmin's Hotel hi, headquarters, has ten-ibl'i. and the -i ra.nge-t things bnpjmed there, and are probably happening. T would not lay strops lie ineptitudes which occur in L.l- - as a result of the activ. of St. Ermin's. If f ■ a I,aYi\< hange a. so!ie : - \.,.. "ring ;to dean the \> ' ■■■ "i .nether tor, I refl/- • : ; ..i' i • -in ivuirc unav' -! •'•>]■■ t ■ >- wIT.MII -,-.,•:..•!. t ...• -M • I g<- clerk* a' •' dl 't'ti d •. : a j

Stock Exchange to help insurance com. panics, while insurance clerks ane drafted into the exchange to help stockbrokers, I sliall not be startled. But one has a right tc be startled by elementary mistakes committed at headquarters. Thus I am startled when a suburban voluntary official working for National' Service, after many vain appeals for popular literature on the subject, receives direct from headquarters two thousand copies of a pamphlet for the use of speakers marked "Private and Confidential." And I am startled when a man of thiity years' important organ, ising experience, both private and public, engaged by personal interview at headquarters, is set to sort posters and to carry messages between the fourth storey and the l>asemcnt of headquarters. Such phenomena are disquiet. ing . They indicate th.it something is very wrong at St. Ernnn's. And the thought of what would ensue if such a spirit had supreme control of compulsory national service is realty formidable. RECOGNISING THE FACTS.

Still, I believe that Mr. Neville Chamberlain will be able to alter the spirit of St. Ermin's, and that he will have the sagacity to depute to some truly capable person what lie cannot do himself, and the perseverance to find that truly capable person in a world where the demand for truly capable pel soul far exceeds the supply. He will, lam sure, have the courage to recognise facts, 'there are two chief facts. The first fact is that up to the beginning of National Service Week the campaign had be.-n a failure. Needless to repeat the official details' The second fact is that outside criticism of the campaign is almost unanimous on the main points. It is agreed that the order forbidding the engagement inthe restricted trades of any male between 18 and 61 was jiot only an injustice but a blunder. Mr. Chamberlain has undone his own act by a new regulation that males between IS and 61 may after all be taken on in restricted trades, provided they have volunteered fo: national service—and by at the same time pointing out that voi. unteering entails no legal obligation! I: is agreed that even tolerable U a blunder that discredits the entire movement. Nothing is more sure than that considerably over half 170,000 volunteers obtained up to the end of last week enrolled themselves by command that they are already engaged in essential work, and tliat they will not be moved from that work. Their enrolment therefore is a misleading farce which accomplishes nothing but a waste of stationery and clerical labour. It is agreed that even tolerabro efficiency will only be obtained by drastic decentralisation of the administrative machinery. It is agreed that until an alternative to the Labour Exchange is provided as a place for discussing and settling employment large numbers of people will not enrol.

And finally, it is agreed that a general appoal lor volunteers, as distinguished from specific appeals for volunteers capable of doing or learning to do specific work, is and must be wasteful, costly, and to a large extent futile. But, of course specific appeals imply that the Department must have first "ascertained what kinds of labour are wanted in the labour market and what are not. And indeed, would it not be batter for the Department to ascertain what tiie need is before attempting to supply it?

THE REACTIONARIES. To hurry the Department would lx> unfair and impolitic. Its task is tremendously complex and difficult. To expect marvels from it would be foolish for there is no material for marvels. The actual useful labour of this country is already employed. The potential useful labour is a mere fringe, but it is all that remains for manipulation by Mr. Neville Chaml>orlain. Nevertheless, a certain section of opinion will try to hurry tho department and will cry out loudly and dishonestly for marvel:;— simply because it would like compulse'v national service, not for the sake of efficiency, but for the sake of compulsion. The lesson of the Russian Revolution has not by any means been learnt in some quarters. The influence of those quarters can be.seen in various places, even in the astounding complimentary reference to tho ex-Tsar in the Prime Minister's message to the Prime Minis, ter of Russia. The public needs to l>e continually warned about this reactionary influence. It is at the back of all the opposition to plain speaking. About Ireland, about Labour, about submarines, plain speaking is swixhed with results that will infallibly be baneful. If I have spoken plainly about National Servico in National Service Week, it is l»ecause I wish well to Voluntary National Service.