Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
ingman 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 manu-
facturer has devised what he calls the bo-
nus system. He proposes to the working
man that whereas a certain article is cost
ing % cents in labor to make, if the same
labor will produce two of these articles in
the same time it will be paid 30 cents for
the two, or 10 cents apiece. The working
man naturally asks why the manufacturer
should not pay 30 cents for the two articles
and depend upon the increased productive
ness of his plant and invested capital and
consequent ability to do a larger business
for reduction in cost and increased profit
The reply made to this by the British
employer is that the men would make ridic
ulously high wages. 1t seems incredible
that apparently hard-headed business men
should advance such an idea. but this has
been the case in a hundred well-authenti-
Gated 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 a doubled pay roll
the British manufacturer could practically
reproduce his factory as represented by to-
tai output, and to the expense of the in
creased output the only charges would be
labor and ma terial.
The so-caled bonus system of Is per
cent increase in wages for q 100 per cent IL
d
small way in several places. The manu-
facturerS, driven by American and German
competition to increase their output or go
to the wall, are determined to make it very
general The labor organizations are firm
ly set against 1t. The conflict will come
when some large shipyard other great
enterprise determines to put 1t into effect.
The employers promise this move shortly.
The labor leaders promise also that it will
be promptly met as an Issue and that re-
SiStaQCe will be carried to an extreme.
Will Not Pay Good Wages.
English employers will not pay good wages
English workingmen are tacitly agreed to
give 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 piece work. down has
come the piece price until the pay roll was
reduced to the approximate average Of IS
shillings to the man employed 1t costs
more than that to buy the proper food for
family Of five. On such wages there is no
possibility of the parents preparing their
children for higher walk in life. The Eng
fish 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 toilsome career to the
grave or the village charity. He Is on the
treadmill and he can look back and see his
father there before him. and he can look
ahead to long vista of descendants grind
ing the same grist.
At the same tie labor is stronger than
capital in the present crisis. The laborer is
hardened to privation. He can starve and
still exist. The employer sees financial ruin
in the future, protests against the cutting
down Of his expensive pleasures. A loss of
income means loss of social prestige,
far more serious affair In England than In
America. He is higher strung, more ex-
posed and more sensitive to misfortunes of
the humiliating kind. The laborer grins
and bears with the accumulated stoicism
of ages. The employer grows desperate,
and rather prefers immediate relief or even
total disaster, to a long period of economy
and self-denial.
The Probable Outcome.
The bonus system will be fought by the
workingman for fear the employer is try
ing to get more work for the same money
1t will be advocated by the employer, for
ne must get greater output per labor unit
employed or suffer from American and Ger
man competition. The outcome of the pres-
ent condition will be that English trade will
go In increasing ratio to the two compet-
itors mentioned. This crisis has been
brought about by the fact that English
employers are paying the minimum wage
for days work. and the English employed