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The Philosophy and Fallacy of "Ca' Canny." By D. Henry Rees. THE Trades Unions of this country may be said to have two main aims To raise the rate of wages in times of industrial prosperity by means of collective bargain- ing, and to resist the reduction of wages during recurring periods of depression, by a method designed to eliminate unemployment. To secure good wages, to maintain the same, and thereby to raise the general standard of living for the great mass of workers, are worthy aims if they can be achieved by wise and legitimate means. How do the Unions set about this task? Realising that, in a general way, the workers are in the iron grip of the law of supply and demand, they strive to modify the social and economic conditions in such a manner as to make the operation of that law favourable to the ends they have in view. If labour can be kept scarce, wages can first be lifted and then maintained at a tolerably high figure. But how can labour be kept scarce? By a general limitation of output in comparison with population. How can un- employment be eliminated, or at least reduced to a minimum? By reducing the daily output of each worker, and so spreading the work to be done over the largest possible number of workers. The task, as thus conceived, is two- fold to prevent a glut of labour and a conse- quent slump in wages on the one hand, and on the other to make jobs go all round by strictly limiting the output of each worker-in other words, by a policy of ca'canny." Before recourse was had to the last-named, other methods were successively tried. Trades Unions from the outset have striven to limit the supply of labour. When such efforts by them- selves have proved ineffective, they have tried to reduce the output by means of the limitation of the hours of labour. They have supplemented these by a system of apprenticeship to each trade, and a limitation of the number of such apprentices. Each trade has gradually ap- proximated towards the mediaeval Guilds in the vigilance with which the entrance has been watched, and the care with which the rights of the workers in a given industry have been safe- guarded. But when all these efforts proved ineffective for the general end in view, the policy of ca'canny was added. Now the community to-day has no desire to quarrel with the general aims of Trades Unionism. Let wages by all means be raised and unemployment be reduced to a minimum, if both can be done without endangering the real interests of the workers, or menacing the industry and commerce of the country. The ends aimed at are unexceptionable it is the wisdom and effectiveness of the means employed to attain these ends that are gravely questioned bv many. Take the policy of ca'canny." Can it be defended upon ethical grounds? and what are the moral reactions upon the workers themselves likely to be? If men, under instructions from their respective Unions, fail to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, the limita- tion of output may be the least of the evils which flow therefrom. Will not the work be perfunc- torily done? If the man shuffle through each day doing as little as he can for the best wage his Union can secure for him, will not his man- hood decline, his character deteriorate, and the very stuff out of which a virile and progressive nation is built up be undermined? But apart from these ethical considerations, are the economic fruits of ca'canny likely to be such as the Unions anticipate? Let us take the bricklaying industry as an illustration. It is generally understood that 900 bricks can be laid in a day by a moderately skilled bricklayer with- out any undue strain. Not many years ago this was the daily average number, while in America 1,200 is a very common daily task. Now we are told-I cannot vouch for its accuracy-that the Trades Union concerned has decided that the day's output should be limited to 300 bricks per man. On the surface this seems a short cut towards the elimination of unemployment in the bricklaying trade. The work that could easily be done by one man is made three men's job. While the bricklayer's output is reduced to one- third, his wages has been increased. What is the natural economic reaction? The builder cannot afford to engage and pay at an enhanced rate of wages three bricklayers to do the work formerly done bv one man. Consequently the building of greatly-needed houses is seriously retarded less work is provided for other workers in the building trade­plasterers, paper- hangers, makers of doors and window-frames, slaters and tilers, carpenters engaged in flooring and in erecting the wooden frame-work of the roofs of the new houses-all suffer because the bricklayer has received instructions to reduce his output in the supposed interests of himself, his mates in the same trade, and the workers generally. But that is not all. The policy of ca'canny inevitably tends to raise the cost of living all round. When the builder has to pay the brick- layer more wages for less work, he has to put on the additional cost to the price of the house when sold, or on to its rent when let. The private builder cannot be expected to build houses at a loss should he attempt to do so he would soon find himself in the bankruptcy court. That is the chief reason why private enterprise has been so limited in this direction during the post-war period. The enhanced cost has had to be met in most cases by higher rents, by uneconomic ex- penditure on the part of municipalities, and by