The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1920. WASTAGE OF LABOUR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3586, 23 September 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1920. WASTAGE OF LABOUR.

With which is Incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News"

Much has been written about the great wastage with modern industry, and if the' American Meat Trust has done nothing else that should prove of service to the world it has certainly set an example and given an object lesson in the elimination of Waste. It is claimed that in their meat-packing business nothing is wasted, every part of the live animal slaughtered is made to contribu e towards increasing the prodigious wealth Trust members wallow id, and were it not that the Big Five include in their scheme for elimination of wastage farmers from whom they buy and public to whom they sell, subject- > ing them to the process of extracting the very last farthing in value that it is sciehtificaily possible to get out of them, the Trust might be transformed from a curse into a blessing. Trust methods are the antithesis of whrt commonly understood by the word sport; they give their victims not. even a fighting chance; they drive their fish into a hole and dynamite it. In their exploitation of farmer ahd the public they give their victims no chance whatever, for they commenced hy blocking every avenue of escape; they removed every vestige of that which would have furnished even the semblance of a sporting chance. There is everywhere, over rivers, mountains and plains, a wastage which, considered economically, is truly of a vandalous if not of a criranal character. In the idle fertile plains, the beautifully wooded mountains and the rushing rivers of New Zealand millions of millions of pounds worth of material and power has gone and is going to waste, and it is only when driven by failure through wastage of one kind that an effort is made to repair that wastage by retrieving in some other direction. In a casual review of the labour question, one cannot help being impressed by + lie huge wastage in labour which might be avei’tcd. The State has spent much money in building up a dairying industry and in perfecting the frozen meat business, but how. lamentably short of what, might have been accomplished have its efforts been. In the building up of these primary indus- | tries the State was eliminating west- ' age of labour in production of life necessaries, bn' wby did the State call a halt while there were millions ! of fertile acres left and thousands of men wasting their lives in trying to secure land to work upon? If in considering the wastage of labour the State con ributes to, politics are left out, and are not allowed to warp the judgment, it will soon be apparent that throughout the national workshop and laboratory half is wasted; half the factory room, half the plant and storage, half the stock-in-trade and half the labour. The State is like the man with the best intensions who starts upon improvement, and is then turned aside from his good work and good resolutions, leaving the work half .finished. The State appears to be obsessed with those propensities which constitute the Meat Tru&t and shipping ring a real danger; it privileges one class of labour against another, and each is wasting half i s time and energy in fighting or protecting itself from the others aggressiveness. TJie further this 'subject 3s probed the more serious aspects of it *■> 1 becomo apparent; in towns are herded men, women and children, men and women largely employing their time as parasi >s on the work of others looking for “melons” instead of looking for work, where it awaits them in

abundance, in the country. An object lesson that will go right on for many centuries into the future is that of the criminal waste of human life caused ; by nothing moije than failure to adequately instruct men who fought in the great war. Men were cast into a rent in ranks, made by scientifically directed fire, to stop it by sheer weight of human flesh, rather than fc skill in handling arms, and physical fitness for such work. That is past and gone, but men are being forced into adopting anything but that mode ahd purpose in life that would render them of most value to the State. If evidence is needed of how little the State cares about the wastage of “labour it can be found in abundance in the various trade journals issued in Britain just prior to the war. An advertisement for ten girls in the “Boot and Shoe. Factory’ ’ would bring five hundred applications. A jam industry paper states “there is an endless stream of girls, more or less incapable, who will work at any casual job. A muslin trade journal states that owing to irregularity of employment skilled labour has become virtually unobtainable. A shirt factory paper says that most finishers are widow's, and married women who come back to the factory owing to the low wages paid to their husbands. But, through a long series of narrations of this kind there is all ahum apparent the Trust persistence of classing human flesh and blood w‘U j commodities, to make as much profit | out of it as possible while it is workj able, and easting it out as wastage to rot on the human rubbish hear when it can no longer be profitably k used. It is then left to the tender 1 mercies of the State to die a slow death and be given a pauper’s funeral. And in almost every "discussion of the labour problem there is a thread of wail and regret passing through it about a serious significant lack of skilled workers, male and female. It is apparent that a truly lamentable and discouraging waste of human effort in achieving human progress and. in advancement of human civilisation, is the result of failure to educate, instruct and train; to inculcate to conviction the fac! that for man to be the success every individual should be he must submit to discipline which results in discover? iing aptitude, in developing application, in arousing and sharpening of intelligence, and in fitting him for continuity., of effort for the reasonable number of hpurs he is now called i upon to work. In this Dominion th® elimination of wastage in labour is obviously a side issue; youth is taught anything but the fact, that work is an essential ,that must be faced seriously. The fact that he must work to live is left.to dawn upon the young, hence the best part of life is lost and the final result is more often, casualty than anything of a permanent' character. The period between birth and manhood, the adolescent s age, should, it seems apparent be a period for training so that the maximum of usefulness and the best in citizenship may be evolved. It is pitiable to see the number of youths and young men that flit from one casual job io another, contracting'between whiles the worst vices that are going to render them less useful citizens and probably in landing them in the ranks of .parasites and criminals. There should be no such thing as casual wharf labour; means should be found of keeping men permanently employed if 'the awful wastage of labour, of human life would be eliminated from industry. Casual labour tends to break down normal energy in men who would prefer cons ant work and cannot get it. The Slate is neither educating nor organising labour in a way and to a degree that tends to reduce wastage of human effort, and in that connection they could very well ’ake a leaf out of Meat Trust industrial organisation, which holds out reward for all who excel at their work, Put the State must not i make the fatal blunder of classing | human life with raw commodities. ! The policy of the Sta'e in eliminat- I ing wastage of labour is not dissimilar to that in natural en- 1 ergy that awaits harnessing, nml of land that might bo rapidly put to in- ( creasing production ; it i s a* policy of exigence, expediency and mean- | while wastage continues, progress lags, and discontent becomes general. ■