His Master's Voice. (1926)

From the January 1926 issue of the Socialist Standard

Clynes says, "Work Harder."

Mr. J. R. Clynes, M.P., speaking at Hull, said, the question whether British workmen were doing their best or were as willing to work as were their fathers had to be answered with reserve and qualifications.

On the whole the British workman was as good at his job as any workman throughout the world. There might be some who harboured the thought that the less they did to-day the more they would have for to-morrow, but no workman ever harboured a more mistaken notion.

Restriction of that sort could only lessen the buying power of their wages.

High wages could not be paid on low production, and the best course for British workmen was to accept the doctrine of high efficiency and high production. The workmen's greatest enemy was scarcity, and it was the greatest opportunity for the profiteer. ("Evening News," Nov. 13, 1925.)