The Thames Star. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1911. EDITORIAL. "SPEEDING UP."

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10355, 2 May 1911, Page 2

The Thames Star. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1911. EDITORIAL. "SPEEDING UP."

s THE! AMERICAN SYSTEM. Ib id said th!at the "speeding lip" process is to bie intrdduced! into New ZeakattJ, and it in sure to fcei strongly resisted. Th« Blritiah' people object to a sctari!e by ■wliioh it is proposed to treat a liumian ibleiiig as a machiu's, holding that ifc is

fundamentally wrong!, and those who wish- for gjenel-al progress on the part of the working man will doubtless agreo with them. In the United States, horn-ever, manufacturers are partial to .standardised! workmen, jus* as they ard fond of turning' cut standardised dommodities, lAib it is airjgueidl that experience shows that thlei standardised workman does nob do the West work. But tho argument that is used most honestly ngainst the American "speeding up" process is that no share of the profit accruing from improvements etvpr falls to tha lot of the worker. "If there is j ..anything in this economising of human energy," sadd, the secretary of the official Labour Patty at Horne 1, "how is labour to profit? Xti is true that the authors of this system contemplate an equitable division of the amount saved when resolved into money value, but i:tt matters of this kin<3 we are justified in appealing to experience 1; and our experience 1 is that workmen ha,vie! never wjorkted fewer hours as the result of scientific adjustment and economics applied to industry." Mr J. B'atohedor, the general secretary of tto Operative BWoklayers' Union, is equally emphatic Upon tho subject-. "The Americans," hd says 1, '.'may have worked out labour motions tv a fine art. They may have soi atandarised them that ■cvoi.-y ' action t>f a. man's body, cvicry pulsation- of his heart, one inijrht ahnost say, whilst he is at-wwk for his employer has got. to 'Us usictd in pvctluo tive la&ur. But that is not the system on which wo wish to work in this country.".Hie will find this view of tho matter very practically supported in New Zealand's laltoui* legislation.