Religion in the Factory
IN this book, which is one of outstanding importance, Sir George Schuster sets forth what he regards as being the reasons why the
high evel of ipdustrial efficiency can only be attained by applying Christian rinciples to the conduct of industry. What are the Christian principles, he asks, which have to be interpreted and applied in industry, and he replies that in his opinion everything that matters can be found in Christ's answer to the question, " Which is the great Commandment in the law ? " " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great Commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
It is Sir George's contention that " if men's conduct is governed by love of their neighbours properly interpreted, if their actions are based on the belief that God has a purpose in the world with which their work must be harmonised and if their work is seen as something dedicated to our ever present God, there would be no problem in human jelations in any field of worldly life.", No
doubt this is true, but I doubt whether he has allowed sufficiently for the fact that only a minority of persons in industry, perhaps a small minority, would consider religion so relevant to their daily lives as to form a basis for action.
It is undoubtedly true that, in the relations of management to the workers in industry, mere good will is not enough. It is the duty of management to maintain a high standard of efficiency in industry, for otherwise it will not be possible to provide good wages and good living conditions for the employees. " Kind hearts there must be, but clear heads are needed too." In attempting to achieve a high standard of efficiency the well-being of the workers must always be borne in mind. " There can be no satisfactory form of , industrial society if the great numbers who are engaged in industrial employment and all its accessory economic activities can find happiness only in escape from their bread-winning work." And if this is to be achieved the. essential point is " to make industrial employment something which is, and is seen as, an essential part of a satisfactory human life, and not as a cause of conflict, or an evil burden to be escaped from or reduced as soon as possible."
Sir George does not accept the " unduly pessimistic view of those who say that the conditions of modern industry, with its mass- production methods and the breakdown of skilled craftsmen's jobs into repetitive, unskilled, machine-minding operations, have made it impossible for the bulk of manual workers to find in their daily work a soul satisfying activity," but he believes, and gives his reasons for doing so, that " there are ways in which modern industry can offer opportunities of new kinds of interest to offset the loss of the individual craftsman's interest." Industrialists who are faced with the problem of counteracting the deadening effect of the wide- spread breakdown of skilled craftsmen's jobs will testify from their own experience to the fact that the methods of doing this set forth by Sir George are both practicable and lead to a large measure of
success. .
The message given in this book is particularly relevant at the present time, for " we stand at the beginning of a social revolution characterised by new attitudes and expectations on the workers' side and a strong reaction against the old status of the dependent wage- earner." Such a situation obviously calls for wise action both on the part of management and of labour. Speaking as one who worked in a factory for fifty years, during a large part of which I was responsible for labour relations and all negotiations with trade unions, I can testify to the wisdom and importance of all that Sir George has written. I should like to see hundreds of thousands of employers, workers and trade unionists read the book. If they did so, not only would many of them find greater satisfaction in their work, but the effect on productivity might well be startling.
B. SEEBOHM ROWNTREE.
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