Boy life & labour : the manufacture of inefficiency / by Arnold Freeman.

  • Arnold Freeman
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Boy life & labour : the manufacture of inefficiency / by Arnold Freeman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    numbers of boys into skilled trades cannot be expected to produce much result.” 1 In fact, if we develop specialised technical training to any great extent, we should be in danger of over-stocking the labour market with skilled workers, who would find it exceedingly difficult to turn to other occupations.2 It is true, as we have seen,3 that there is a certain shortage of skilled workers in many trades, and it is of the utmost importance that this deficiency should be remedied. Upon the supply of highly trained men, capable of taking advantage of every opportunity of developing our methods of production, depends the industrial future of the nation. “ The real secret of success,” said Lord Haldane recently, “ lies not with the owners of capital, nor with the unskilled workmen, but with the large and increasing band of highly technical people.” 4 Sir H. Frederick Donaldson, giving this year’s Presidential Address to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, stated:— “ There appear to be two desiderata for meeting this competition. (1) Our quality of output should continue to be superior to that of our competitors. (2) Our selling prices should be if possible, actually, but at any rate relatively, lower than theirs. The former of these demands that the machinery and the appliances should be the best of their kind, that the men engaged should be fully qualified from their personal skill for their use, and that the association of these two should be most closely effective. The latter requires that the methods of doing the work of production should be organised on the highest lines of efficiency, having special regard to the avoidance of waste of either material or energy.” 5 1 Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, Appendix Vol. IX., 96921 (9). 2 Cf. Mr. Cyril Jackson’s Report on Boy Labour, p. 12 (cf. also the Reports of the various Distress Committees). 3 Chap. VIII. pp. 201, 202. 4 Speech to the Eighty Club, April 4th, 1913. 8 The Institution of Mechanical Engineers ; Address by the President, Sir H. F. Donaldson, K.C.B., April 18th, 1913, p. 13.