FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 3 June 1907, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

DAIIiY COMPANIES AND THEIR JCMPI.OYEKS. The formation of a Union amongst the employees of dairy factories in Taranaki has occasioned great concern to shaveholders of factories, who see in the banding together of the men conditions that might materially increase the present cost of production. There is ii)t the slightest doubt that when the factories are cited to appear before the Arbitration Court, the wages of the men will be substantialy increased. The .May number of the Dairyman devotes an article to the discussion of this matter. It pertinently says:—"For fifteen years this colony has been dominated by the Labor Unions, and there is every indication that the domination of these Unions will continue for many years. As it is absolutely impossible to carry on the dairy business with the same conditions of labor they obtain in regard to other industries, with their eight hums' work per day, their Saturday half-holi-day, their double pay for Sundays and iiolid.iv-;. it li-hove.-. the dairymen of New Zealand to evolve some method of dealing with this difficulty that will enable them satisfactorily to carry on the business in which they are engaged. Xowhere in the world is co-operation amongst dairy farmers so successfully carried on as it is in Xew Zealand; and it is by the extension of this principle, we believe, that the trouble now looming ahead is to be overcome. Here let tis tell a little story to illustrate our point. When the Steel Trust was formed in America they gave the Carnegie Company four hundred million dollars for their business; probaly about four times as much as it was worth. Having eil'ected this enormous purchase, to gather in all the other irou and steel manufacturers seemed an easy task-, and so the promoters thought. They bought business after business, and business after business without a check. It seemed indeed the Steel Trust were never to meet their Waterloo. And they never did until they came to deal with the proprietary of a great iron works that was carried on on a strictly co-operative basis. When the founder of this business received the offer of the Steel Trust, he saw that for every twenty shillings worth of assets the Trust offered him forty shillings. The temptation was great. Acceptance meant to the proprietor and his son retirement on a princely competency. The offer was, however, refused. A few years before the Steel Trust was formed, these works, which formerly were equipped with all the necessary machinery in the shape of tell-tale clocks, time-keepers, timechecks, etc., for securing the regular and punctual attendance of the workers, were reincoqrorated as a strictly co-operative business. From that date every man and > boy that entered the works had a proportionate share of the profits earned. The day that the new system came int'i operation the tell-tale clocks were thrown on the scrap heap. There was no longer any occasion for them. Every employee, when the clock struck the hour for commencing work was waiting , at the gate to get in, and that business to-day is one of the most successful in the world, and more than that, it is 1 unique in this particular: That the Steel Trust, with all their hundreds of millions of capital, hadn't money enough ' tp buy it. Now why shouldn't this principle of co-operation obtain in regard i to dairy factories? We think this is at once a solution of the labor trouble and a step in the direction of securing better quality. When the farmer delivers . his milk on the factory platform of a co- ■ operative dairy company, be has by no means done with it, for the manufacture i of the raw material into a. marketable product, lias still to be commenced. It is true thai the company have a well-, paid and eflieienl manager to take charge of this liram-ii of the business.

product imi-.t to a large extent impend. Why should not these oilier men have a personal interest iu the miaiily of iiie' ]>roduct they are iiiamifaciiini!:;'; What .locs it matter now to tli.-m whether the butter or cheese they make is first grade, second grade, or even third grade? Not one iota. If the manufactured product does not come up to the highest stiuidanl .of perfection it is no concern of theirs: for the onus of good (putlity or had unality is always on the manager. Let us take. lor instance, an eight-vat cheese factory, where each vat holds siv. lumderd gallons. At sixpence a pound for the cheese each vat of milk is worth twenty pounds. In a week this totals one hundred anil forty pounds sterling. In 28 days EoliO worth of cheese is turned out Ivy each vat, and the total value of the eight vats is £4-180. Surely, with such a large sum of money at stake it would he wise to secure the heartiest en-opevation of every worker in the factory. One of the first results of this profit-sharing system would he the increased interest taken l>y every employee in the work, ami this could only result in increased quality of the output. If the quality could be increased in value by only one-sixteenth of a penny per pound, the amount to be paid to the employees would be more than reimbursed by the extra price obtained for the company's output; and what is more important than that, the men would feel that they had a direct pecuniary interest in the work in which they were engaged. If a combination of this sort engendered a sufficiently hearty 'esprit de corps' in the ranks of the workers instanced above to enabl the principals to resist the tempting offer of the Steel Trust, it goes almost without saying that it would sufficiently effective in this colony to enable the workers to resist the blandishments of Hie walking delegates of the class to which Mr Collins belongs.''