Shop Management

SHOP MANAGEMENT 189 a given amount of work in a day has been the greatest mistake made by the English trades unions. The whole of that country is suffering more or less from this error now. Their workmen are for this reason receiving lower wages than they might get, and in many cases the men, under the influence of this idea, have grown so slow that they would find it difficult to do a good day’s work even if public opinion encouraged them in it. In forcing their members to work slowly they use certain cant phrases which sound most plausible until their real meaning is analyzed. They con- tinually use the expression, “Workmen should not be asked to do more than a fair day’s work,” which sounds right and just until we come to see how it is applied. The absurdity of its usual application would be apparent if we were to apply it to animals. Suppose a contractor had in his stable a miscella- neous collection of draft animals, including small donkeys, ponies, light horses, carriage horses and fine dray horses, and a law were to be made that no animal in the stable should be allowed to do more than “a fair day’s work” for a donkey. The in- justice of such a law would be apparent to every one. The trades unions, almost without an exception, admit all of those in the trade to membership — providing they pay their dues. And the difference between the first-class men and the poor ones is quite as great as that between fine dray horses and donkeys. In the case of horses this difference is well known to every one; with men, however, it is not at all generally recognized. When a labor