a Page 4, The Herald, Friday, October 19, 1979 TERRACE/KITIMAT daily herald Ganerai Otfice- 635-4357 Published by Clreulation - 635-6357 Sterling Publishers GEN. MANAGER - Knox Couptand EDITOR - Greg Aiddleton CIRCULATION - TERRACE - 635-6357 KITIMAT OF FICE - 632-2747 Published every weekday af 3212 Kalum Streat, Terrace, B.C. A member of Varifled Circulation. Authorized as second class mall, Registration number 1201. Postage pald In cash, return postage guaranteed, NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains fult, complete and sole copyright in any advertisemeni produced and-or any editorial or Photographic content published in the Herald. Reproduction is not permitted without the written permission of the Publisher. EDITORIAL October has been designated tn- ternational Energy Month and it is an appropriate time for us in the Pacific Northwest to think about energy. In an area where energy Is so im- portant, both because of the cold and great distances between the outlying. areas and malor centres, higher energy costs hit us especially hard. Living as close to the environment as we do, we should also be more aware than most of the need to make carefull decisions about the risks we take In finding and transporting sources of energy. Among the decisions which will affect us are whether ‘or not ofl tankers will come down the West Coast, the dam- ming of the rivers and lakes near here to provide power for aluminum smelting and the prospecting for uranium. We also see the effects of logging and mining in this area, both sources of energy. We can have a say in the .kind of energy used In this country if we speak together. We are in the area where that energy is comes from and Is transported through. We should be considering the advantages and risks of Canada’s energy policies. The decisions made in Ottawa and Victoria make a great dif- ference to the quality.fo our lives, as well. as the amount of money we have left to spend after we have filled up the car and heated our homes. CONSUMER COMMENT wallpaper, or the decoration on grandmother's ‘silver’ tea service are all examptes of industrial design. Good design complements the function of a product by enhancing its appearance. The elaborate engraving on a set of silverware, or the pattern on ceramic tiles may not serve any practical purpose, but it does provide an aesthetic satisfaction. Design also helps to distinguish one product from another. Chances are you could select your favourite soft drink from a number of others just by the shape and colour of the bottle. If you've created an original shape, pattern, or ornamentation which you plan to apply to a manufactured article, you may be interested in protecting your right of ownership by obtaining an industrial design registration. The protection afforded by registration of an in- dustria] design lasts for five years from the date of registration and may be renewed for an additional flye years. No further renewals are permitted, and once the registration expires, the design may be used or sold by anyone else. The fee for each five-year registration period is $95. . Industrial design registration in foreign countries does not protect a design in Canada, nor is Canadian registration of any protection in other countries, In- dividual applications must be filed in each country in which protection is desired. An information kit on industrial design registration is available from your district office of Consumer and CONNECTIONS Technolog and chang y - e | Occupational destiny By JOSEPH C., GIES Technological innovations-- new tools, new machines, new processes-affect not only human society but, directly and immediately, the producing workers. Today, it is possible to envision a society in which technology will liberate workers from much of the physical drudgery and boredom that have marked their lives in the past. . . Better tools permit workers to produce more(and better) work; machines replacing tools save their labor and multiply their production; and computor- programmed automated factories turn them into monitoring engineers, employing mental more than physical skills. ; Nevertheless, workers typically have not welcomed innovations in production technology—far from it. Nor are they entirely mistaken in thelr apprehensions about new techniques. Quite apart from their prin- cipal fear-that it may bring. unemployment-new technology may have unforeseen effects on their working _ lives and personal destinies. _ ‘The outstanding historical example of the impact of changing technology on workers’ lives is the development of factory mass production. Even while creating the abundance that has transformed the modern world, mass production has had a dehumanizing effect which governments, workers’ organizations, enlightened management, and modern social science will seek to mitigate. Fighting the factories The modern factory system has an ancestry going back many centuries. Medieval wool merchants in Flanders and Italy began “putting out’’ their wool successively to spinners, weavers, fullers, and dyers in what amounted to factories scattered through a town. The system foreshadowed the true factory both in increased volume of production and in the stimulation of class conflict. By no coincidence, ———t history's first strike, in 1245, i, The shape of a pop bottle, the palleri'oa:VOURAa anders, en TY Meaversof Devas, “The “Commercial Revolution" in which the Flemish wool entrepreneurs participated provided the basis for the later Industrial Revolution -centered in 18th- century Britain. . Spinning and weaving there were mechanized and steam-powered, multiplying productivity but alar- ming the hand weavers. In the early 19th century, bands of “‘Luddites,”’ fearing loss of jobs tried to destroy the new machinery but they were brutally suppressed by government treops. In France, workers kicked machines to pieces with their heavy wooden shoes, or ‘‘sabots’’--giving rise to the word “sabotage.” Similar worker protests oc- curred in Germany and were memorialized by Nebel prize-winner Gerhardt Hauptmann in his drama ‘'The Weavers.” British workers resisted another innovation: work discipline.At his celebrated pottery works at Etruria, England, Josiah Wedwood, in the latter half of the 18th century, was one of the first to divide his labor force into sequential groups—potters, painters, firers, finishers--achieving both increased production and enhanced quality. , But the new arrangement required that workers conform to the pattern imposed by the flow of production. Previously, as craftsmen, each per- forming the whole range of functions in pottery making, the workers had frequently ‘kept St. Mon- day”(taken Monday off), and on other days had sometimes deserted their benches for an ale ora game of handball. Wedgewood posted rules and levied fines, Corporate Affairs Canada. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR To the Newspaper: Long lines of people stretch from the bullding,.as if passing before the coffin of sume greal personage, a war hero now dead,or some great statesman,but this is dif- ferent, Excitement builds as we approach slowly the doors, to see it in all ils wanderment, shiny and glowing, the broad swath of colors, the excitement of seeing the new counter at the post office. The who-doneits in Ot- lawa have given us a new counter for the post office, rumors have set between $10 to 18 thousaad as the cust of replacing the old-suil- useable counter with the black meriah and of course they had lo cut back on the number of people that are al the new counter. I guess they figure that wilh fess staff it will take longer to mail our letters and parcels and we will have a longer look at the new counter, Good tse of our tax dollars. Talk about circuses for the masses, instead of funding meaningful programs like Canada Works, the govern- ment gives us new counters and poorer service at our post. office. Not really amused, Robin Gondhew but remained chronically vexed by labor troubles, Loss of dignity As powered machines supplanted skill with sem- skill or lack of skill in industry after industry, workers in Britain and elsewhere lost thelr old sense of creativity and even their old dignity. An observer at a British trades-union congress in 18%) recorded the difference in appearance between the old aristocracy of creft unionists, with their respectable dress, often including top hats and watch chains and the ‘“‘new ” unionists, the shabby, nondescript factory workers. In North America the industrial revolution at first produced a quite different effect. The wealth of natural resources and severe shortage of labor made the country highly receptive to the textile machinery spirited out of Britain (against ineffective laws for- bidding its export) by Samuel Slater, a youthful im- migrant of 1789, It was not surprising, therefore, that the next major production breakthrough, interchangeable parts manufacture, achieved its triumph in North America. The concept had originated in France and Britain, where experiments had ‘indica its promise, but craft-minded European industry held back. By the lime Henry Ford appeared on the industrial sce’ about 1900, interchangeable -parts manufacture was known throughout the world. Meat packing plants, Ford got the inspiration for his assembly line, which brought parts directly to the workers in a continuous flow. No rules needed posting, no fines were required. The moving line's inexorable pace enslaved the men feeding it, exacting repetitive functions performed with an inhuman consistency. Assembly-ine workers were turned into the human machines satirized by Charlie Chaplin in his 1936 film “Modern Times.” Meanwhile, at the turn of the century, an engineer, Fredrick W .Taylor, devised'a way to increase steel workers’ output by minutely analyzing their jobs. By following Taylor’s instructions faithfully, a worker could substantially improve his piecework earnings. But “Taylorism,” or scientific management, copied and often abused, won a reputation for efficiency at - the expense of humanity. Aglimmer of insight into worker psychelogy came in the 1920s, quite by accident. In studying the effects of improved ilumination on worker performance at an Electric Company plant at a town called Hawthorne, Elton Mayo was astonished to find that a control group, under the old lighting, improved its production as much as did an experimental group under better lighting. The “Hawthorne effect’? showed that workers responded with better performance to the mere fact of heing consulted, asked to cooperate, dealt with as human beings. Further experiements explored the relationship between man and machine and the worker. sub: culture, virtually creating a new sociology. Human- factors engineering, an outgrowth of Taylorism and the Hawthorne experiment, sought to design machinery and equipment for maximum ease, con- venience and suitability, Automation The most recent stage in mass production, | automation, came immediately ory ae rt zi mi RO I] (though. machitas'basic to factory autdmati baa to thé Rrachinpe pase to in the 18806) Workers’ resistance in some industries, such as railroading and printing, has brought considerable conflict. Yet overall, automation’s impact on employment so far has proved limited. Meanwhile, factory working conditions continue to ery out for improvement, particularly the reduction of heavy labor, noise and the provision of amenities. “Flexitime,” by. which workers are allowed to arrange their own schedules within certain limits, has enjoyed success in a number of Canadian, U.S. and European plants and offices, measured in part by a reduction in absenteeism. “(Job enrichment,’’ aimed at combatting ‘‘anomie’’- - the boredom of repetitive work—has also had some success, though in its more radical forms, such as non- assembly-line production of automobiles in Italy and Sweden, the outcome is not yet clear. Essentially, the recent experiments have been attempts to exploit the principles discovered by Elton Mayo by providing greater scope for personal achievement and recognition for the workers. In recent decades as in times past, however, such conscious efforts have been less significant in altering the worker's relation te work than the large-scale and usually unpredictable changes imposed by the general direction of technology and economics. These include the shift toward the sevice industries and high- technology clerical jobs, and from fabrication to processing industries, such as chemicals, plastics, and synthetics, in which automation flourishes. ‘These changes and the rapid strides made by in- dustrial robots, which perform mechanically some of thé functions previously performed by humans, give cause for hope that in the not too distant future physical drudgery and anomie may both be eliminated. ABOUT THE AUTHOR : | JOSEPH C. GIES Has been Director of Publications for the Association of Governing Boards of Univer- sities and Colleges since 1974. He was previously an editor for “This Week Magazine” and senior editor for technology for “Britannica IIT’ of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. A prolific writer, he has published many stories, articles, and reviews in magazines and journals in additlon to his books on the history of technology, which include “By the Sweat of Thy Brow" (with Melvin Kranzberg), “Bridges and Men," and = ‘Wonders of the Modern World.” NEXT WEEK: Clarence J. Glacken, Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Califorala, Berkeley, explores our changing atdtudes toward nature. OTTAWA OFFBEAT BY RICHARD. JACKSON Ottawa -So youreally didn't believe it, eh? Believe ‘those public service _—_ jokes. Jokes that went: why does a public servant never look out the window in the morning “because if he did, what would he do in the afternoon: ; Or: why are those stripes drawn down the middle of government building corridors--to separate public servants arriving late from those leaving early. Or: how many public servants does it take to change a light bulb-six; one to change the bulb and five to fill out the requisition forms. ; . Or: how does a public servant wink—he opens one eye. ; ; But why go on, there are as many public service as Newfie Jokes ... so many, in fact, that the public service, either in reconciliation, national humiliation or self defence, has started laughing at itself. Laughing, and in a strange sort of way, somewhat confirming the basic truth back of the jokes. Strange to tell, the public service here staged its . very own “games” the other day, a sort of civil ser- vice olympics. Wei! knowing it is scorned over the horizon from Ottawa, the public service used its “games” in a form of seli-ridicule, as if wanting to confirm-and even take perverted pride in the confirmation—what the taxpayers thought of it. Which, to take the public service’s own word for it, isn't much., ‘ So they staged their games, out there in the af- terncon sun, in the square in front of the Supreme Court—as public 4 place as you could find in all the Capital-under the stern stone eyes of former Prime Minister Louis Stephen St, Laurent, carved in granite. They had departmental teams competing. Each government agency has its entry in what was called “The Bureaucratic Shuffle” or "Civil Service Three-step.” The rule book clearly stated that it “has long been recognized as a standard public service management practice that when the appearance of action is deemed more important than the actual action, you do the Shuffle or the Step.” Which is, as you might anticipate, taking three steps, one forward and two back. Usually it can be danced indefinitely, but for the purposes of the games it waslimitedtoS0metres. ——- And, oh yes, the Striped Pants Brigade, the cookie pushers and, tea-slppers from External Affairs won. Then there was Paperclip Sculpturing. * The CBC entered a beaver—intricately woven from thousands of paperelips, and there was an entry en- titled “Trombone,” which also happens to be French for paperclip, by the National Library, Census Canada, part of StatsCan, was in the com- petition with a topical and cleverly inflated dollar worth more in its sheer number of paperclips than its actual buying power. ; Clear winner was Transport Canada with a drab, ald, used and badly mangled paperclip, embedded in , an eraser and. mounted artfully on an empty thumb: - ck box, The judges said it met all the public service criteria in that it demonstrated a clear misuse and waste of government time and money, and had absolutely no artistic, aesthetic or financial value, Came then the great briefcase tossing contest. Government issue briefcases-those impressive black and brown leather carry-alls you see civil :servants lugging about-were used, packed with , forms, regulations, position and policy papers, and all the ‘rest of that official red tape bumpf. The Department of Regional Economic Expansion won that one. . Then there was the Paper Aircraft Throwing contest with the extra attraction of a prize for the most creative form of cheating, The Department of Communications took the prize with a helium balloon wafting their paper plane into the wide blue yonder. It was all in aid of the United Way Fund, and while you might think there could be better methods of money-raising, it had to say something about the public service and its own self-image. An economic car was just ignored ’ HOUSTON (AP) — George Sharman says the adage, "if you build a better mousetrap people will beat a path’ to your door’ may apply to mousetraps, but it has nothing to do with new automobile designs. Sharman, 31, has designed a car that he says will save gasoline as well as lives, but apparently nobody is in- terested enough to come across with money to start production of the vehicle. After building a prototype and showing it around the United States, Sharman asked for both Private and government funds, "But," he says, “I've hit a brick wall." . The only whispers of in- terest came from Britain and Mexico. "I want this to be an American car, but I'll go where necessary to get the proper financing,” says harman, Joining him in the design and construction of the auto were Anthony Buonaura, who works in the product development and technical ~ - service division of U.S. Steel Corp., and Raymond Earl Thomas, a researcher in reinforced plastics for Dow Chemical Co. The four-seat sports model car is made of plastic, with foam blocks of varying den- sities sandwiched between the inner and outer skins, reinfarced with graphite and directional glass. That means, Sharman says, the car “is virtually crushproof,"' The developer says the ve» hicle, powered by an 80 horsepower engine, can get at east 50 miles to the Zalion, The total cost for the car is Sharman says the big auto makers are financially welded to steel-based technology, “and you wen't see any major changes there until the 1990s."" But he adds that “longer-term planning won't solve the energy problem of today.” The sleek-looking red auto, called the Energy Efficient Vehicle, welghs only 1,800 pounds and because of tha energy-absorbing foam, can take a hard lick without falling apart, Sharman says the average American car weigha bet- Ween 3,200 ta 3,500 pounds, ‘and that's foolish, to have that heavy a car to carry a 175-pound driver.” The dashboard contains displays for speed, oil Pressure, coolant tem- perature, manifold vacuum, oil temperature, battery current, fuel level and miles- per-gallon indicator.