Februar>- i, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
13 
bowing profusely in ackaowledgmoat of the plaudits of 
his audience after a famous recital, insisted on. sharing 
the honours by standing beside the performer and 
making his bows. For had he not also contributed 
his share to the performance? .- • 
Distinctions for Industry 
The entire industrial spirit would be changed cuu:- 
pletely if every factory employee from the humblest 
labourer to the manager was made to feel that eacli is an 
important and necessary link in the chain of produc- 
tion. AccompauN'ing this should be a system of badging 
for good conduct and special achie\cment. The Ministry 
of Munitions did a wise thing when it adopted the 
liadge system. It ga\-e a tone and standing to those so 
badged "which has done not a little in stimulating output. 
Soon after the Ijeginning of the war, when my works 
recei\'ed its first contract for mimitions, nothing was 
said at first to the operators as to their being employed 
on munition Mork. -There Avas a tendency on the part of 
several to dawdle. :As 'soon' as "it was explained that 
rapidit\- of output meant the saving of men's lives at the 
front, all signs of malingering disappeared. There arc in- . 
numerable opportmiities for the display of heroism in the 
workshop as well as on the field of battle. Could not the 
Government extend the distinguished service orders to 
include every departm':'nt of life, and give munition 
workers an equal chance with th? soldier for gaining the 
equivalent of the V.C. or the D.C.M. ? 
Another method for alleviating the natural feeling of 
monotony is to transpose operators from time to time 
by putting them on different operations. My experience 
proves that the mechanic who is generally skilled — 
that is, skilled in several operations — is usually better 
in each tlian the mere specialist. Change of occupation 
periodically is beneficial to both the employer and em- 
ployee. In large works where gymnasia, cricket grounds, 
lawn tennis courts and e\en libraries are provided, occa- 
sional breaks in the working hours to enable employees 
to enjoy a few minutes' recreation, will be found of 
immense ^■alue. 
riie excessive use of stimulants, spirits, beer and tobacco 
amongst the working classes ma\' often be traced to the 
desire to get rid of the monotony of existence. Tem- 
perance advocates, asa rule, fail to get to the root of the 
evils of intemperance^ They blame the peoplt who 
manufactiue the intoxicants and sell tiiem, as well as 
I the Government that permits the traffic. But they do 
not seem to realize that the existence of the evil arises 
from the persistence of the demand, for which some good 
reason exists. To get rid of drunkenness we must first 
ascertain its -cause — by studying the motives and con- 
ditions of tliose who insist upon getting drunk. Whilst 
intemperance may be due to mere habit, or hereditary 
desires, I believe a vast amount, especially among the 
working classes, is directly due to the desire to escape 
for a time from the dreariness and the monotony of their 
fives. And the surest cure is to find some healthy means 
of making their lives brioht and interesting. 
Two modern inventions proxide a method for assisting 
in this task. The enormous success which has attended 
the cinema and the gramophone prove the public appre- 
ciation of the need for these diversions. If the Ministry 
of Munitions could have employed 200 or 300 lecturers 
provided with films giving views from the battle fields, 
taken on all the various fronts, etc., to visit the various 
engineering works, and exhibit them ^o the munition 
workers— accompanied by appropiiate descriptions of 
\vhat our men were doing and the part played by muni- 
tions it would have done much to increase output. The 
psychological effect of music is known too well to require 
more than a passing reference. Gramophones in factories 
might afford as powerful a stimulus to labour as a military 
brass band gives to an aruiy marching to battle. 
The greatest factor iiv maintaining the moral of factories, 
however, will be found in the personal relations existing 
between the masters and their men, between the managers 
and foremen and those under them. An American friend, 
employing over 700 people, requires but one overseer. 
The relations of himself and his manager to his people 
are of such a nature that his employees never require 
watching. They are so satisfied with their treatment 
hat their one "fear is lest they should get discharged. 
Naturally there are scores of people, like the Huns, who 
are insensible to kind treatment — to whoin a kick or an 
oath is more effective than ad\ice. Such people are 
either half-human or seldom worth employing at any 
price. J3ut to the average Briton, a kind word is every- 
thing, whilst an unjust act or a harsh word stmgs like a 
scorpion, and seriously reduces his efficiency as a pro- 
ducer. I ha\e often marvelled at the utter stupidity of 
many managers who imagine kindness or sympathy 
displayed to a workman to be a sign of weakness, and 
tends to spoil him. I have known workmen rendered 
incapable of work for several days by some censure 
given tliem in brutal terms. I have always regarded 
such conduct as stupid as a man ^•enting his rage upon 
a machine by striking it with a sledge hammer ! The 
human being is the most delicate, the most scnsitixc 
machine, and needs the most intelligent treatment. 
The psychology of the factory is a comparatively new 
study, but it presents a most fruitful field for experiment 
and investigation. Remarkable as the results of recent 
mechanical efficiency methods ha^■e proved, far greater 
* econonuc results remain to be achieved in the domain of 
psychology — in knowing the conditions under which the 
human factor is capable of the highest achie\-ements. / 
venture to say that the highest degree of efficiency wiU 
be found where labour conditions are the mcst healthful, 
and the welfare and happiness of the workers is the chief 
consideration. Some day the world's statesmen will 
awaken to the fact that any economic system ^vhich 
breeds poverty and misery among the masses is neither 
moral nor econonuc. and that the surest plan for making 
a nation, rich and prosperous, is to ensure first the well- 
being of the working classes. The true science of 
economics must harmonise with the laws of ethics. 
A Question of Status 
THE war as it develops has raised a problein 
present to the minds of all those taking part in 
active service and even of many civilians at 
home ; it is the problem of recognising as act- 
ive the forces hitherto regarded as auxiliary. The trench 
fighting, the extraordinary growth of artillery, and 
especially of heavy artillery and munitions, the methods 
and new perils of liaison (the life of a modern despatch 
rider, for instance), the ])cril of all the branches of the 
service whatsoever within a zone much wider than was 
the case before artillery had acquired its present range — • 
all these causes combined have changed the old balance 
of peril, and therefore the lionour. 
There is a particular example of this which is especially 
striking. We refer to the motor transport which 
" feeds " the heavy guns. This transport was at first 
regarded as purely auxiliary. But in practice it has 
already become, under the conditions of the present war, 
part and parcer of the active functions on the front. 
It runs all the risks of the battery, but its members do 
not rank as the gunners rank, nor count as the peril they 
undergo and the casualties they suffer seem to warrant. 
It is perfectly true, of course, that only a certain pro- 
portion of the transport is at any moment under the 
same conditions of service as the batteries themselves ; 
though, for that matter, the gunners and their jiicces 
are not always in action ; the test would rather seem to be 
whether under the changed conditions of war, the motor 
transport, especially that serving the Ireavy artillery, 
should not be regarded as part of the armj^ 
It will be remembered that long after the introduction 
of artillery, most services continued to regard the drivers 
as something of less dignity than those who served the 
guns. Indeed for a very long time the drivers in most 
services were ci\ilians taken haphazard, and very often 
the teams as well. The full definition of the driver as 
forming a part of the artillery army in the normal 
European organisation is as late as the French Revolution, 
and there are examples even after that date of confusion 
or belated habit in the matter. 
Something of the same sort may be seen in the case 
of the motor transport of munitions in this war, and it is 
at any rate well worth considering whether the time has 
not come for the recognition of this transport as parjL of 
the sunners' army. 
