[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOT•TOR:1
you allow a small employer of labour, who has lately had to consider practically the question of piece-work versus day- work, to state the reasons given by an intelligent operative against the former ? They were, first, that it is a selfish system ;" second, that it leads to bad work, and gives the dishonest worker an unfair advantage over the best hands; thirdly, that it brings down wages.
It is on the second head that I believe the general public is most in the dark as to the case, rightly or wrongly, put forward by the operatives. We assume that the best workman can do most work and earn the most wages, and we cry out against the hardship of his not being allowed to derive the full benefit from his natural advantages. But in manual as well as mental labour there is a difference between quantity and quality, and the real argument for day-work is that piece-work favours quantity at the expense of quality. We don't argue that authors ought to be paid by the volume or painters by the yard, because we know that more true workmanship may be condensed into the space of an octavo page by one artist than goes to furnish three bulky volumes by another. "Penny-a-lining" is piece-work in literature. The author slurs over the gaps in his knowledge with long phrases, because he can't spare the time to get a correct fact. So the unscrupulous piece-worker—man or woman—when a fault occurs in the work or material, will not lose time by stopping to correct it, but hurries on, hoping not to be found out ; and if a boiler bursts, or a seam breaks, in consequence, no one knows the reason why; but working-men shrug their shoulders, and say, "There's your blessed piece-work !" If all piece-workers were scrupulously honest towards their employers, of course this objec- tion would have no force ; but if all employers were scrupulously honest towards their customers, they would have less inducement to press for piece-work, because it would cease to be much faster than well-paid, well-inspected day-work. It is a choice of evils ; at day-work, the bad workman will idle, and at piece-work he will scamp, and it seems that good workmen, on the whole, think the last offence the worst ; and the public, whose lives and limbs may depend on the solidity of building and engineering work, have some reasons for agreeing with the men.
I should say that, in the trade in which I am concerned, piece- work is usual and popular with the hands, but then they are women, not given to reasoning closely into consequences ; still, it was a woman, a shirt-maker of thirty years' experience, who urged the objections to the system which I have quoted; and when intelligent engineers and sempstresses arrive independently at the self-same conclusions, the odds are that they have some solid ground for them, not, perhaps, self-evident to amateurs.
The objection to piece-work as " selfish " seems to rest on its tendency to make the workers regard each other as rivals, com- peting for the work when it is scarce, each trying to get more more than the rest, when all want a share. Its tendency to bring down wages will be intelligible to every one who remembers the evidence given on the employers' side in the case of Jackson and Graham and the Cabinet-makers. Theoretically, no doubt, piece- work is just and convenient ; but practically, there are two sides to the question, "if no more," as Mrs. Dollop says. Trusting you may be able to find space for a few words on the side of some who cannot very easily speak for themselves.—I am, Sir, &c., 68 Dean Street, Soho, January 27. E. J. SIMCON.
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