The Indianapolis journal., 1902-09-21
Both sides Are Taking n Temporary
Rest and the Outcome of the Con-
hict Cannot BE FOretold.
COMPETITION FROM AMERICA
1T SETS A FASTER PACE AND CAUSES
AN INCREASE OF ALARM.
some of the Things That Must BE Done
or Great Britain's Industrial I'M
portance VIII Disappear.
correspondence of the indianapolis Journal.

Correspondence Of the indianapolis Journal
LONDON. Sept. 13.-The effort to meet
American and other foreign competition
has brought about a deadlock between
English capital and English labor. A great
labor convention has just adjourned after
session in London Of nearly a week and yet
I'm all the many days OF talk no speaker
frankly admitted the present situation.
This situation, as ii is now rapidly out
lining itself. especially in relation to some
of the greater industries such ship-build-
ing. foreshadows serious disturbances and
perhaps prolonged conflict marked by
strikes and all their attendant evils.
The problem now before the British
manufacturer is to increase the output of
his plant. Labor Is now receiving all the
wages IL can expect at the present rate
OF production, The employer is not max
ing as much money as he formerly did and
the cost of living has greatly increased for
both employer and employed. The only
hope for the manufacturer is to make his
capital already invested yield greater out
put. He is not willing however to pay the
labor a proportionate increase. The laborer.
afraid TO attract attention TO his earnings
by increasing the quantity Of piece work
produced in a day goes easy. Both en-
piOyer ana employed are SUSPICIOUS one Oh
the other. and neither will make the first
move in the right direction for fear the
other will not play fair.
The result OF this mutual suspicion is a
deadlock. the outcome of which no man can
see Both sides are resting their arms
just now. The employer has made a few
quiet moves towards increasing the product
OF his plant by introducing labor-saving
&oI-
the place OF human muscles, and by pro-
posing a bonus system of rewards for in
creased speed Labor has accepted the
machinery but has allowed no reduction Of
the pay roll. The bonus system is resisted
and. to the American mind, for very good
reasons &
At the bottom OF the whole trouble lies
the attitude of the British employer to-
wards his employees wages and the lack
OF confidence on the part of the empIoye
that the employer will share increasing
profits. One idea firmly imbedded in the
mind OF the British capitalist is that
thirty-ave shillings or about nine dollars
per week is all the average British work.
man should receive. Increased earnings
by means of piece work have been met
by reductions in piece price. The working
man therefore is getting all he earns. He
could earn more but is afraid to do so. In
brief the employer Is trying TO get more for
his pay roll and the workingman refuses
to yield more without an assurance of a
larger wage
THE BONUS SYSTEM.
Cropping about for some method of in
creasing his output the British manufac-
turer has devised what he calls the bonus
system. He proposes to the workingman
that whereas a certain article is costing
Is cents in labor to make. that If the same
labor will produce two OF these articles
in the same time il will be paid 30 cents
for the two. or Is cents apiece. The work.
ingman naturally asks why the manufac-
turer should not pay 20 cents for the two
articles and depend upon the increased
productiveness of his plant and invested
capital and consequent ability to do a
larger business, for a reduction in cost
and increased profit.
The reply made to this by the British
employer Is that the men would make
ridiculously high wages. 1t seems in
credible that apparently hardheaded busi-
ness men should advance such an idea, but
this has been the case in a hundred we'll
authenticated instances during the past
six months. The ordinary American mind
cannot grasp the idea that 1t would be
detrimental to a manufacturer to pay
twice as much wages for twice as much
work. without practically a dollar OF new
investment in plant. That is to say, in
return for doubled pay roll the British
manufacturer could practically reproduce
his factory as represented by total out
put. and TO the expense of the increased
output the only charges would be labor
and material.
The so-called bonus system of a 25 per
cent increase in wages for a 100 per cent.
increase OF output has been introduced I'm
small way in several places The manu-
facturers, driven by American and Ger
man competition TO increase their output
or go TO the wall. are determined to make
1t very general The labor organizations
are firmly set against IT. The conflict will
come when some large shipyard or other
great enterprise determines TO put IL into
effect The employers promise this move
shortly. The labor leaders promise also
that IL will be promptly met as an issue
and that resistance will be carried to an
extreme.
WILL NOT PAY GOOD WAGES.
English employers will not pay good
wages English workingmen are tacitly
agreed 10 give no more labor than they are
paid for The experience of English labor
In the past has been that where larger
earnings have resulted from speedy niece
work. down has come the piece price until
the pay roll was reduced TO the approx-
innate average OF thirty-hve shiIlings to the
man employed. IL costs more than that TO
buy the proper food for a family of five
On such wages there is no possibility OF the
parents preparing their children for a
higher walk in life The English laborer
sees no hope for himself and what is more
sees no hope that his son can do otherwise
than follow his fathers monotonous and
toilscme career to the grave or the village
charity He is on the treadmin and he can
look back and his fathers there before
and he can look ahead 10 a long vista of
descendants grinding the same grist
At the same time labor is stronger than
capital In the present crisis. The laborer
f. hardened TO privation- He can starve
and still exist. The employer sees finan-
cial ruin in the future: protests against the
cutting down OF his expensive pleasures.
[ loss OF income means a loss OF social