A GREAT WASTE OF LABOUR.
[TO THE EDITOR OP TRH " SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—The shortage of labour is universal. It can obviously not be ;alleviated by transferring labour employed in some necessary occupation to some other occupation—for instance, from shell-making to agri- culture or from agriculture to shell-making—but only by eliminating all unproductive labour as far as possible, by transferring the workers who are engaged in unproductive employment to some productive and very necessary employment. As it is difficult for the State to reorganize employment in this manner, it can best promote the object in view by making unproductive and nationally unnecessary employment as difficult as possible, and by inducing the employers of unproductive labour to dismiss the men and women unproductively employed. They will then quickly enough enter those employments in which they are most required. It is probably no exaggeration to say that hundreds of thousands of English men and women are unproductively employed. I will give some instances. Hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men and women carry food to and fro in popular restaurants and refreshment-rooms which customers can just as well fetch themselves. In the United States and in Canada self-help is universally practised In the cheap restaurants, refreshment-rooms, &c. Customers fetch what they require at the counter, pay for it on receipt, take it to their tables, and only a few attendants are needed for keeping the restaurant clean, cleaning crockery, &o. Incidentally, that system has the advantage of prompt service for the customers, and it makes food cheaper by reducing the cost of running a restaurant. A very large number of growing boys are employed in selling newspapers in the street. At many stations six or eight young strong boys are loafing about selling papers, and in addition there is a bookstall with one or two attendants. The selling of newspapers in the street is quite unnecessary, and should be forbidden by law for the duration of the war. The sale of newspapers would not be reduced thereby, and the boys, who at present grow up in busy idleness, learning no useful work, ' would become useful members of society, whereas they may degenerate into loafers if they grow up in ignorance of a useful trade. Very large numbers of able-bodied women are at present employed in domeatio work who can easily be spared. Employers should reduce their servants to the absolute minimum, but they may hesitate to do so, fearing that they will not find work. Many thousands of able-bodied men arc employed in tending ornamental gardens who would be far more usefully occupied in growing food. During the war ornamental gardens may well be allowed to grow ragged. In order to induce employers to dismiss unnecessary servants and gardeners, it would perhaps be useful to impose a tax upon servants, graduated in such a way that the tax would fall lightly upon people employing only one servant, but very heavily upon those employing a large number. By similar means the unnecessary waitresses and waiters and the street vendors of newspapers might be eliminated, unless the large employers of such labour, the great catering companies and the newspapers, should voluntarily abolish tho present waste of labour.—! am, Sir, &a, J. VT TN BARKER.
- Albion Cottage, Fortis Green. East Einchley,
Previous page
