“GET A MOVE ON!”

Taihape Daily Times, 27 August 1919, Page 3

“GET A MOVE ON!”

DO Wl3. TAKE IT TOO EASY? We are told, and told truly, what we an have to work harder than we ever did, says Mr Morley Roberts, in the Daily Mail. Young or old, man or woman, we must “put our backs” into it. An old fashioned “Government sltroke” will not do any more, Circumstvzumes tell us loudly to “get a move on.” " But do Englishmen work hard? They may work harder than many, but do they really put their backs into it? It will be an unpopular opinion, but I do not think they do. I have rarely seen

any but clioal-wrippers on piecework doing half as much "as the American Worker.

This will make the working man angry_ I cannolt help that. I am not one of those who abuse him, for I know that even the vilified plumber, lvho comeé with a bag and goes away ‘for something lle has forgotten, is only doing what he is told to do by his employer, who Wants to get hold of more jobs than ll'ls staff can justify.

But how can a writer know what work is? Assuredly I shall be asked the question. I am’ continually telling those wilrhout the knowledge of work who criticise the work=el' that they do not understand the subject. But do It? A critic ha_s"lto show 1-oasons for the faith in h'i'nl, afid I think I can do it.

I'c-arned my living by my hands for eighf years in Australia, America, and at sea. In Minnesota I once worked 36‘ hours witliout sleep. I worked on furins in lowa, in sawmills in Briiish Colombia, and on several railways as :1 secftion hand, or plzitelayer, and as :1 more labourer in rock cuttings. During my life I hzav-e learnt. to handle thh pink, bar, shove], the sledge—lmmmel' as a striker, the felling axe, and broad axe, to men'tl'on'3only a few of which I still know Ithe tricks. I did these thin_9,‘s for money and a. living, and worked alongside men of more than twenty na.tioll~alitios. I «only mention these facts to Show that if I pose as 21. critic I do know wliat hard W-o!'K, sirained muscles, and even raw and bleeding hands are like.

Y/Vnrk at" sea is sometimog ilzcref ibly ha,l'd. and it is almost always risky. But take it all round, British ships,:ll‘o not run too furiously, to put it nlildly. In Australia men Work Wonderfully at times. But when I first landed in the United States I came to the conclusion that I had never really soon men work before. The very first thing that drew my

attention was a gang working in a _stroet, and the impression I got was mat the boss had told them that if they worked very hard for a little while they "might go home! I soon found out my mistake. Wherever I went I found work (lane in the same way. If it was so in New York State, if was the Same in lowa, Minnesota, and Illinois.

It is the common opinion of mos’: Amorica.n foremcn 01' employers that while an lL‘nglishm_an is good material, 12¢ has to be taught ‘how to work. Whofn I was on a Californian ranch I (lid work which on an English farm v'oul(l have occupied at least two men and. a hefty boy, In sawmills the pace is tl'cmr)lldouS, and, until I became used to if. by the time the knock-off whistle blew I was “all ou‘r” and almost too tired to eat. On the Pacific

F'~}OpC more work is done in :1 given time ,_frhall all_vwherc else, in the world. I‘ once took a job that was too hard {'ol a sturd,s' Swed_e who had repmced (.11 Engliz-thman who threw it up. This is the 1-e:=._son that high wages are paid. When production is large and quick us well there is more to flivide. It pays an American to pay 3. r..-an three times English wages if he grts three times the work done. I do not say it is_ always right for men to Work so or to keep it up.

In some cases the pace is too hot_ I_once worked my passage in :1 Puget Scnnd steamboat in which few men oxjer twenty-six could “hold down” figieirr jobs. They were not quick ’Z»;:'2§ugh at running trucks up and down 'g'af[lgWays with a 12cwt load. To carry offworli like this may be wrong, and iwhink it is, but the fact remains that Inany young men took enough money tqfstart at something else. An ordinary English labourer would decline a job like it at any price.

When I came back to England after lit-eing through the Westerxi “mill” it seemed to me that Englishmen took it easy, men and employers both. The executive statf seemed to think more of golf and tennis than of their business, while the worker shared his ohieffs view, that the aim of life was to do as little as possible. I do not think that there is a single, Englishman who has lived in America for any time and has learned to work there who will not endorse what I say, and add to it much that I refrain from saying. . 2 ..