LEVELLING DOWN OF LABOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9013, 24 December 1907, Page 4

LEVELLING DOWN OF LABOUR.

That there is an increasing lack of efficiency in labour, marked by a lessened output and by lowered quality, is asserted by the writer of a leading editorial in the "New York Iron Age." This paper believes that' the great increase in the volume of business is at the bottom of the trouble, since every workman has felt that there was sure to be a job for him., no matter how slipshod his work. The prospect of a business decline, which the writer considers imminent, will, he thinks, furnish the remedy. We read:—"The gravest evil from which this country is now suffering, graver by far than the exaggerated dangers from monopolies or from freight rebates, is the decilre in the efficiency of labour. It finds epxr.ession iiv slouchy work on the part of those who know how to do better, and poor, work on the part of those who have never been taught or are incapable of learning. To the more serious defect of lowered quality is added the troublesome feature of lessened quantity. There has been an extraodinary demand for labour of all kinds. So far as that has raisedt wages and directly increased the cos

of production employers have had no grievance, although it is a trouble-, some and difficult matter to carry them back to th 3 normal level. Manufacturers know that prices for their products . usually decline more rapidly than the labour cost, and must be willing to face that contingency. The laws of supply and demand never operate so promptly in the one case as they do in the other. As for the quantity of -output of labour, that, too, responds fairly well, when the demand for labour declines. The process of weeding out the lazy and the inefficient begins promptly, and it may be accepted, as a general fact, that few managers have not thoroughly examined their rolls with a view toward making their selections. The fact will be firmly realised soon that steadiness, reasonable industry, and acquiescence in necessary measures of discipline are primary conditions for employment, and that simple application for work is not the only qualification. There is 1 every reason to hope, too, that a lessened demand for labour will be reflected in better quality of work, although in that respect deeper causes have been operative than temporary high pressure of production. The effect of levelling down, which has been the curse of the labour unions, cannot be so quickly eradicated. It is true that the concentration of industry into larger units tends to deprive an individual workman of the hope of starting on his own account, and the necessity for preliminary scientific and technical training is closing him out of the ranks, once • open to him, of managers and superintendents. It is further true that in the days of an extraordinary demand the manufacturer has often permitted or, eyen encouraged some sacrifice of quality for the sake of quantity. But granting that all these factors have been at work, there remains a residum of wretched work which must be directly charged to the spirit in which labour is facing its tasks. It almost seems as though the. hard .school of adversity can alone bring back a realisation of the fact that the world owes a living only to those who deserve it."