Show WORKMEN K WILL NOT N QT WORK I Because They n d Fails Behind Com Commercially V I Cur CurtIs ls Brown in leland Cleveland tIe lan Plain I r earl i l IJ V is making makin at least one ENGLAND big bi Ne Nev v Years resolution If I she can tuk tik to it the invading II African manufacturer presently pr wilt will find obstacles in his hi path to English trade British folk of oPen en complain that it is bad bid manners JOanne fur Americans Americana to come over and had And fault with everything and everybody In England and p to all and sundry how bow much better condi conditions conditions are at home But the British crit criticism is a generality baaed b ed on Insult insufficient dent facts Now Noo and then of course ourse one dues due run across an American so 80 blatant that fellow countrymen hate to acknowledge hi hiI 11 but the serious fault faultfinding faultfinding faultfinding finding of most moat Americans who stay in England long enough to be qualified to toI speak I eak becomes be Omes chiefly confined conned in time timeto to 11 U one topic British workman And now nw the British public as u rep represented resented by a chorus of oC newspapers and employers of labor have hae tackled the same name topic and nd are jumping on th British workman as vigorously as an 8 anany any American cousin New Years ears re resolution to is that this workman shall be made to turn over H t new leaf i In digging dl around at the roots of the commercial situation in England a lot lotof lotof lotof of entertaining and significant facts acts about British labor Jabor have been turned u ip facts sufficient to prove the charge against some Borne of ot the trade unions here that they have deliberately fostered the I idea that the tile less lea work a nan man JOan does th Die More Thore there wiN will be b for fer him to do Look at this rule copied frum a brick layers card Rule 5 You are strictly cautioned not to good rules by doing dou double double double ble the work you are ars required and Ad causing others othera to do the same in order to lo gain a smile arnIe from your master Such r foolhardy and deceitful actions leave leavea le ve vea a reat Rt number of good members out of employment the year round Certain Individuals have been who will willbe willbe willbe be expelled if they do d not refrain The phrase doing double the work you ou are required as aB interpreted local locally locally ly Iy means working with anything like lIce fair energy It has been charged re ie repeatedly that a man who begins working work working ing lug conscientiously soon is warned by hla h ts companions companio s that t it wont do If Sn In i defiance 01 or of this warning tie he Insists insists on doing dIng dl a fair tair days work he will be reported to his union and fined for the offense nse If after that he still refuses to as his mates do he will be kicked out of or the union altogether and will nill lose JO nil all benefits for tor which he has been een subscribing for years and all the provision be he has hu been making for old r J the man who Is resolute In dealing thus Ufus wickedly with his employer is not nota nota a non nion man one of two courses will willbe willbe willbe be taken with him The other men on the Job may refuse to work with him and aM thus get him discharged but the mere inre common method thod with such pace pacemakers pacemakers makers masters pets or sweat sweaters sweaters ers era as aB workmen who believe in earn earning earnIng I ing their salaries are celled called c is to make I his life UCe a burden by harrying him Mm They will nag at hint hini all day ling trump up I charges against him and entry carry them to the foreman and ad he is 1 fortunate if they th refrain from mobbing him I The other day a London workman lad had his nose broken and both loth eyes eys blackened b cau e he be was too ambi Another laborer who had been harried about from pillar Jmar to post for this cause for some time on being sum summoned summoned monad once more to explain his con conduct duet duct et t a meeting of oC his union avoided the th mandate ste te by cutting his throat dary ar o have bave k work be because becAuse cause a i run ken laborer was ordered off te He others have left at night and disappeared henceforth be because because cause their employer had grumbled at the systematic slowness with which they had been working Time after tf ne contractors have had all aU their calculations upset by the of or orup th lr men and the temptation to make makeup makeup I I up deficiencies by Jerrybuilding Is sOmetimes 8 overwhelming I joor savina m greatest of all ons In th the old school British workmans sight He climbs to the not long ago 0 ole carded C by most workmen I that the use of seh h machinery ma means fewer ew men and set sets seta Ws his hl face tace I against then thena in consequence In Liv Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool shipwrights are not by their union to tu put copper on ona ona ona a ships bottom if iC the metal has bas been n punched Dy Iy machines machine simply because the machine ran can punch pinch fifty sheets while one ie it being punched by hand band Th The union also forbids the men mn mf n to use spun oakum for raking liking al although alth although though th ush the machine spun is superior to the other When men are furnished with ma t spun oakum By their firm finn they the j I I will wili lit Hit down and spin it over again I notwithstanding the fact t that it costs tw nty times tI as all much to spin oakum J by hand as It dose doeu by machinery This j i 1 Is 19 why is already sending J iron iOD into Great Britain at the rate j of tons it week and why steel I castings an be e made so cheap i Even whets when en the British r 1 in inducing his men t to use I labor saving savinI he often gets gels IS little ii i hi I it it from t m tent because bt cause many unions t lons insist I that exactly u me same of men shall be put on as if the were to he be done by hand with Ith tM the th result re that one man in three will have ha nothing to do but to watch the others work This is one explanation tion Hon why shy hy American Am shoe manufacturer manufacture er e era though paying their men 15 a week an II compared om pared with ith the which the h workmen receives re in can send from Boston and Chicago Chica o and beat the her in his bis hi own H re is 0 i story told by a correspond correspondent eDt eat of ef the he Times TIlDes who rho ho signs himself ter which is particularly t HI I 1 know he writes of a case i In Manchester where an employer pur purchased chased a machine tool tuo from an Amen Ameri Americas cas laa which was wu guaranteed to effect effet a saving k t 75 7 5 per cent cert on the cost of ot pro product production production duct ion of a certain article The tool 1 duct ion of a certain article The tool was I and started and it did not come eme UI up to ex expectations expectation The seller sel r came and Bad demonstrated demonstrate d that it would W uld do the work in the guaranteed time After a few weeks had elapsed the employer wrote the American Amer ta 11 The machine is i doing no better than thin when wh n that first fixed The an ailed at the works and said Id Your foreman will not Ier mit mil it to 10 bf be worked U v na nave you ou 01 or of inis is Well said aId th the Yankee YankE YankEl ve ye been l wording under an assumed name in your our shop as am a mechanic for fur two or three weeks on my m own machine machin and ad I was ordered by b the th foreman to I restrict the t e output of it ta to t of o whet hat it is 18 capable of doing doln fl I s give iv ve many mans other cases aliEs I have had labor savins toots tool willfully damaged dama ed and with In every fry way in my m own engineering Wor vori I TB ff jd of an aD important firm writes ot of bow wok 0 k in his shop is kept back bak by hiS foremans practical pr impotence H He s One dy cry a small pk piece e of oC wo wa nearly n arly finished wanting Ung but oae ose rivet when the men n on it went Off og CM n t spree Only one riveter was available so o to help lam him the foreman took up he hammer and knocked up the with him He was seen seer doing this his reported to tc the thc trade union and fined 45 5 L Had ht t not paid the men 1 c u Q would nave have have refused to work under him In an adjoining firm a foreman boiler boilermaker boilermaker maker lifted a hammer and knocked kno ked off of the head bead of a bolt with wit one blow He was fined 2 by the union for this on the charge that he be was doing two h o Jobs those th of foreman an 0 When r I 1 carried o this subject sl bJ t to Sir Hiram Maxim Maxtin of Maxim gun fame he said I r dont believe there are many people in this thI country better qualified than I am ant to discuss this question for Cor I have haY been I een right In hi among amon the men f w years working with them and I ateo Sian aJ o know many of the principal labor leaders leaden personally some of oC them hav Mv ing lug been graduated from our works A Scotchman who was once man ager aser of ot our works said that the great greatest eat est obstacle te he had to contend with was organised Organized idleness and the present PC nt manager of our gun works although h he be is i an engineer of or the high highest est eat order tells tella me his duties are mure more those of a a detective than an engineer The trade unions not only attempt to prevent their members from working at automatic machines macl ne at all but if the men men are ae on suh a i ma chine they the will resort rrt Wl rt to every ble trick to limit its output All Alt their influence is directed against rapid end anti cheap production and a large English manufacturer remarked to me recent ly Jy that he believed there were wen more than He 11 ways in which an can an e cheat his employer But the British h workman is not content with idling himself He insists that every other man l lan shall idle too For instance if It I go and pick out a prize let of men mea who are Just the kind of workmen n I want the others in my shop will quit if Ie those picked men i turn out the amount of ot work of which they are ere capable The others insist that the output of oC each of ot the picked d men shall shan be identical with that of oC the weakest man in the shop British h manufacturers are going to tf lose Jose all alt their business s continued Sir Hir Hiram if It this sort of thing goes on British workingmen have allied them th m selves ostensibly for mutual benefit but actually with the object of spin ning fling out the work by idling over it with the idea that they thus make more money What is needed is a Such a tion now exists among the firms in the engineering trade having been formed immediately after alter the great strike six ala years yeans y ago arro go as that combination succeed ed in correcting all ak the annoyance anno ance to I which you have referred It has mitigated it greatly I Have you encountered this same sante I trouble in your shops Yes and VIckers Sons Maxim Is a member of the Federation of Engin earing cering firms We Ve have found that the I way to get got work done is to insist rigid ly y on on piece work as is done in Amer lea ica paying the man for the amount he turns out When our firm finn first started this system we had a strike that lasted nine months and when we Joined the other engineering firms in their federation we had another which i lasted Jasted eight months We won out In both of them however h wever I P t Peter Curran or Pete as he signs himself is chairman of the General Federation of Trade Unions in Great Britain representing about workers He is well known in Amer Arner ica lea having been delegate from the English Trades cades congress in 1900 at lIch Ich time he visited most of oC the states He Je has lies been chief of the fed since nce it was Avas founded and andean can speak with authority I do not admit he said that the depression that threatens this at present is j due country to any limit Umit of the output of labor Jabor I attribute it to war ar and to the obsolete and niggardly methods which the British employers encourage German and American em are not saturated s with the conservative views dews dews we hold bold in this country They spend their money free Cree ly they get et the most modern machin cry ery r they t ey are continually looking out for new ideas and the worker there fore fare has greater facilities 8 for I lion tion Th There Is 18 no comparison between the workers of this tho thois is country and those of America because I one on Is I aged aeed to produce the other Is not In what hat way 9 I The he American Americ n workman is better paid and is better treated by those these in I authority over him Men Ien in America are paid pidd P ld according to their capacity whereas wheres in England masters hardly ever encourage this idea Iden But England is fast tut becoming Americanized in the way of If production and capitalization and when this Is Js complete British j i workmen will wilt be able to compete in point of output with workmen all an over the t e world This outcry in England against the workman is an attempt to break brea up combinations combination among them Mr Curran denied that trades unions Lad hail any an unwritten law Jaw limiting the output of ot labor tabor and said aid they the did not approve of such an Idea except ex pt In iso late cases ca ear such AS q in the coal colli mining milling industry there I feel teel it Is very sary and you will win observe that the South Wales miners have hare something t to say about the regulating if it they f did dio sot ot limit it In this cue case the pit mouths m would get blocked and the masters would be placed In a position to stop work altogether starve the miners miner and then demand their own price in the way war of ot o wages w It is Ia worthy of note n te however that the uncommonly intelligent Writer of ot f an article In tn the latest annual report of the tIle federation says that the charge against again t the tite unions of limiting the out put PMt of labor is a serious one and anti urges urge I the federation ROt not to countenance such I a practice In the tinplate J in America he says are about three i times time the rate in lh South Wales but de tie spite this burden the American Ameri an export trade though small all is rapidly grow ing lD The output per man in the tle states Is seventy boxes xea the union ulion limit in Wales is said to be forty An outsider cannot say whether the t limit is 18 too low I but there is surely surel matter for consid era tion acre nere I |