Alex's review illuminates a bitter dispute

Ian writes: Readers with an interest in Australian history would find value in Alex's assessment of Walter Dill Scott's Increasing Efficiency in Business (posted May 19), and in Alex's references to Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management, published in 1911.

An attempt to introduce Taylor's methods triggered the New South Wales railway strike of 1917 – which I believe to be the most divisive industrial dispute in Australia's history.

In the background, Australian social cohesiveness was under stress from the growing war casualties in Europe, from the bitter class and religious differences displayed in the military conscription debate which saw "loyalist" advocates narrowly lose national plebiscites in 1916 and 1917, and from the assertiveness of a newly articulate working class.

In January 1916 James Fraser became acting Chief Commissioner of the NSW Government Railways, which then included the extensive street tramway systems. In Working Lives, a commissioned railway union history, Mark Hearn wrote:

Fraser was an engineer by training, a man with a methodical cast of mind. An official portrait portrays him as brooding on human inefficiency. He believed that the labour force could be made to work like the implacable machines of industry.

He was influenced by American ideas of scientific or systematic management. During 1916 Fraser attempted to introduce the management strategies of Frederick Taylor into Eveleigh Railway Workshops [in an inner suburb of Sydney].

Taylor's system involved the use of cards to measure an individual worker's performance. Fraser commented that “the object was not to 'Americanise' the system, but simply to get a proper, fair and right record of the work done and exact cost of every article”.

The unions differed. In July 1916 a Co-operator [railway union newspaper] editorial stated that “it may be said that so-called scientific management seeks to make the task of the worker more monotonous than it ever was, to take from his work the last vestige of individuality, and to make him a mere cog in the machinery of production”.

In Working Lives, Hearn said the war created the sense that events were no longer under control, that life and work were hurtling inevitably into chaos and confrontation.

This must have been especially disturbing to the controlled and well-ordered Fraser, who sought certainty in properly regulated, concentrated and systematic work. On 20 July 1917 Fraser introduced the card system into the Randwick tram workshops.

Hearn continued: Far from striking as soon as the cards were introduced the workers at Randwick in fact sought to negotiate with both the Commissioners and the Government . . . “they knew that they worked as fast there as was done anywhere else, and were not afraid of any inquiry into the question.”

The negotiations proved pointless. On 2 August the men walked off the job.

The strike quickly spread. At Randwick 1100 men walked out; on the same day 3000 downed tools at Eveleigh, and were joined by rail workers at Newcastle, the Clyde workshops and Goulburn. In turn their numbers were swelled by train drivers and workers outside the rail and tram industry – seamen, wharfies [stevedores], miners . . .

The strike lasted 82 days and involved about seventy thousand workers, 14 per cent of the total NSW workforce. However, 42 per cent of rail and tram employees did not strike, and more than three thousand volunteers helped keep trains and trams running. Non-union crews worked coastal shipping. More volunteers drove trolleys and wagons and manned wharves.

Workers who were starved or frightened back to work found themselves demoted; those who stayed out to the end found themselves marked never to be re-employed.

One of the sacked workers was locomotive driver Ben Chifley, a Irish Catholic blacksmith's son from the NSW country town of Bathurst. He did not regain his job until the election of a Labor government in 1920, which returned the sacked or demoted workers to their old positions.

The experience turned Chifley to politics, and he won a seat in the Australian Parliament. He became the nation's Treasurer during World War II, and, after the death of John Curtin in 1945, Prime Minister until the voters tipped his government out in 1949.

Here endeth the history lesson. I'll read Increasing Efficiency in Business as soon as I've time. Is Scientific Management also in the library? I must check, but I'd better search also for the next Globusz book to review.

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A sense of style to enhance our writing

Ian reports: Guys, I hope you don't think I'm skiting, but for a time this was my desk as I assessed Slips of Speech. Perhaps, even, I could claim to have literally heaps of dictionaries, style guides, writing manuals and the like. Sounds obsessive, but for more than fifty years these were some of my tools of trade as a journalist. As well as my own books, the photo shows a few I borrowed from the local library to help me check how Slips of Speech stands up against modern guides.

In my previous post on May 17, I outlined some questions to be answered. First, can a book published in the US in 1895 help today's writers and speakers? I had been sceptical about 19th century advice – but the fundamentals of sound English usage don't change much over time.

Perhaps that shouldn't surprise. Cornell University professor William Strunk published The Elements of Style in 1918, and his little book still forms the core of the better known editions expanded by E.B. White. Over the Atlantic, Henry Fowler published Modern English Usage in 1926.

Decades later, their advice still helps us write and speak English which conveys our meaning with precision and vigour. Still, some word meanings and usages do change over time. When I began as a cadet journalist, I received a copy of The West Australian's style manual – a set of galley proofs. When they changed a ruling, the editors would just replace a few lines of metal type and have new proofs pulled.

I recall, however, that they hadn't got round to replacing: "Aftermath is the grass that grows after mowing. Do not use in any other sense."

In 2001, senior journalist Lucinda Duckett prepared an excellent style guide for Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper empire, but she was already out of date with "e-mail" instead of "email", and perhaps in putting a capital letter on internet.

Guides published in 1895 or 1918 or 1926 or 2001 remain valuable, but writers must keep their craft up to date. As for the differences between US, British and Australian English, we'll just have to learn to live with them. Levelling or leveling? Jewellery or jewelry? Criticise or criticize?

The Globusz guys in New York may be scratching their heads over "skiting", used above, but in Australia it's a well established synonym for boasting.

Strunk's readers in the rest of the world may be misled by his instruction to write "red, white, and blue" rather than "red, white and blue". An American football hero may get an answer he doesn't expect if he asks an Australian girl to root for him.

Some Sydney newspapers previously used the US spelling labor, and by some quirk our ruling political party is the Australian Labor Party, but otherwise Australia follows the UK with labour.

[Any writer who needs to know how UK and US styles differ would find The Economist Style Guide invaluable, particularly the hard copy version. Writers should also mark the guide's opening words: "Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible."]

Do you need to know terms like participle and infinitive and gerund to understand Bechtel's advice? No, you do not. Where you need to understand them, Bechtel offers clear explanations in plain language.

My extensive research has failed to uncover much about Bechtel (OK, I tried Wikipedia, and nothing came up). I suspect he wrote for the newly literate class which would have emerged in the 19th century after the US government brought in compulsory schooling. As in Britain and Australia, the desire for self-improvement probably drove many people to improve on their rudimentary education.

Unlike some authors of English usage manuals, Bechtel didn't assume his readers were already well versed in the terminology of grammar. He organised Slips of Speech into sensible chapters. To assess his guidelines for apostrophes, I looked up the chapters on Contractions and on Possessives. His explanations were clearer than you'll find in many modern books.

The Globusz edition retains the original index, but the reader cannot use it to look up individual entries because the original page numbers no longer apply to the digital scan.

Globusz author Eugene Binx was kind enough to post a witty comment to my May 17 post: "Good'ay Ian. Just a thought; perhaps the Apostrophe should be abolished as its' uses are possibly not an exact science."

As it happens, I can – just – remember a short-lived newspaper which did abolish apostrophes. Described by veteran journalist Mungo McCallum as Richard Neville’s "attempt at hippiedom in which he wrote under the pseudonym Harry Gumboot", The Living Daylights was a product of wild young Australian radicals in the mid-1970s. If you share my nostalgia for those manic days, follow this link.

Seriously, though, I think apostrophes are too valuable to discard – too many contractions or possessives would become confusing. We just have to learn to use them correctly.

And now, class, before we go, let's check out some more sightings:

• An email from Telstra BigPond tells me a new plan could take effect from 12am the next day.
  
• A receptionist confirms my appointment for 12pm.
  
• "I think the onus is on the Minister to ensure that there is a proper, objective and fulsome investigation of this leak" – Australia's ABC Online quotes Senator Nick Minchin.

When the clock is spot on 12, it can be neither ante nor post meridiem – it's 12 midnight or 12 noon. And as the News Ltd style book says: "Fulsome does not mean full or abundant, but overdone, insincere, disgusting, sickening. Fulsome praise is anything but positive."

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Increasing Efficiency in Business by Walter Dill Scott is a winner.

Don’t you just love it when you find a book that reinforces your own beliefs? Scott’s a gutsy guy, because he’s prepared to take on modern thinkers with his in-ya-face ideas. In his book Increasing Efficiency in Business, Scott says, ‘the modern business man is the true heir of the old magicians.’

Some readers won’t like what Scott has to say or his take no prisoner’s style. I’m guessing some people will find his comments a bit too confronting and he’ll rattle their comfort zones.

Scott refers to F.W. Taylor on many occasions. If you’ve forgotten what line Taylor peddled, this is a quote from Vincenzo Sandrone, a former student of the University of Technology, Sydney, in his essay, F. W. Taylor & Scientific Management. Under Taylor's management system, factories are managed through scientific methods rather than by use of the empirical "rule of thumb", so widely prevalent in the days of the late nineteenth century when F. W. Taylor devised his system and published "Scientific Management" in 1911. "Few employers can gather a force of efficient workers and keep them at their best. Not only is it difficult to select the right men, but it is even harder to secure top efficiency after they are hired." Touching this, there will be no dispute. Experts in shop management go even farther. F. W. Taylor, who has made the closest and most scientific study, perhaps, of actual and potential efficiency among workers, declares that: "A first-class man can, in most cases, do from two to four times as much as is done on the average."

“While overwork has its place among the things which reduce energy and shorten life, it is my opinion that overwork is not so dangerous or so common as is ordinarily supposed.” And what about, “Those nations which expend the most energy are probably the ones among whom longevity is greatest and the mortality rate the lowest. In the city of Chicago there are many conditions adverse to health of body and mind, yet the city is famous for its relatively low mortality as a parallel fact. It is also affirmed that the average Chicago man works longer hours and actually accomplishes more than the average man elsewhere. This excess in the expenditure of energy -- in so far as it is wisely spent -- may be one of the reasons for the excellent health record of the city.” See what I mean. He’s a straight shooter. But he’ll get some women off side, because he only talks about men. He never mentions women. But cut him some slack girls. When he wrote the book women weren’t well represented in the workplace. In Scott's time most women didn't work outside the home. It was their job to take care of the men.

Hey, you can’t argue with this comment, “We have a choice between wearing out and rusting out. Most of us unwittingly have chosen the rusting process.” Right on!

If everyone reads Scott’s work and only 1 in 500 take on board his ideas, I reckon we’d all be better off. Because those people would start hassling all their mates and the people they work with, and they just might win them over.

A really good mate of mine says she believes we’ve all been brainwashed into believing we need three times as much sleep as we actually do. And we’ve be told over and over that we have to put limits on how much work we take on. She recons it’s all rubbish, and she pushes the boundaries every day to keep trying to find her maximum working potential and her minimum sleeping requirements.

I'm convinced! I want to fight the popular myths and take on Scott’s ideas to the max. Hey, I’ve got nothing to lose. If he’s right, then I’m going to be a whole lot more productive. If he’s wrong; what the heck. I’ll have a great reason to become a ‘slacker’ and join the beach bum brigade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Dill_Scott

When I discussed Scott with my hard working parents, they both said, 'It’s time we brought back his ideas so people will develop proper work ethics again.'

'I’m hooked. I hope you will be too. This one should be essential reading in preschools. I know I’ve said it before, but if you want to do yourself a favour, then do the download. http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Increasing/index.asp

Scott was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society (ΦΒΚ) stands for Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης or philosophia biou kubernetes, "Love of learning is the guide of life."

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I asked the readers to be the judge and they've done just that.

Kevin Atkinson has defended Eugene Binx’s novel Zen and the Art of Stand Up Comedy. Kevin read the eBook and enjoyed it so much that he's taken the time to add a comment to the Blog.

Thank you Kevin.

I hope many more people will read the book and make their own judgement about its worth. I’m happy to admit that reading tastes vary enormously, and my opinion may not be shared by most of Eugene’s readers.

It’s great to know my review has started a debate.

Congratulations Eugene. I believe the Globusz Publishing Book Club is providing an excellent service. Giving writers and readers a place to interact, and share views, is extremely valuable; and it's just not possible with traditional book clubs.

I’ll be delighted if my review comments are proven to go against public opinion. After all the job of a reviewer is to generate interest, and to stimulate others to read the book. You may find you have a lot of support out there. And that’s got to be a good thing.

Well done,
Kind regards,
Lindsay.


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Yes, there's a need for Slips Of Speech

Ian reports: A few days ago, I took two of my grandchildren to the Australian Reptile Park. It's a good day out, but I felt I had to shield their impressionable young eyes – any time the illuminated sign above an exhibit tried to say "its" it said "it's", as in "this snake sheds it's skin".

On ABC radio 702 in Sydney, the morning presenter says the previous Australian Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, is becoming disinterested in Parliament.

A judge tells a law conference he has a problem with disinterested juries.

An emailed newsletter from the NSW State Library tells me of the enormity of a new exhibition.

In a blurb about a book on English usage, I read that "John Hendricks Bechtel . . . has literally put millions on the highway to greater accomplishment and success".

So, do we need another book on English usage? The examples above (all of which are true) suggest we do – or at least that it can't do any harm.

Less than five years ago, Lynne Truss's book Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation headed bestseller lists in English-speaking countries for many months.

Truss's readers would invite you to join them as they sniggered at the illiteracy of the great unwashed (usually, these smug people bugged me so much I'd switch to discussing the use of the possessive case in gerunds, and mock those who didn't know what I was talking about).

In the past five years, have you seen an improvement in the use of apostrophes?

Is it pedantic to point out that "disinterested" doesn't mean "uninterested". I expect a jury (and the judge) to be disinterested, but I don't want them uninterested.

Is it too late to shout that "enormity" means monstrous wickedness, not of great size?

And with respect to the Globusz people, I doubt that Bechtel, despite his being impressively erudite (note my use of the possessive case in a gerund!), put literally millions of people on any highway, let alone one to greater accomplishment and success.

Yes, I've quoted from the Globusz catalogue blurb for the book I'm reviewing – Slips of Speech, by John Hendricks Bechtel.

Anyone who read the May 8 post on my personal blog knows that Vera and I were to review a Globusz book together.

She suggested Kama Sutra, which sounded fascinating, but instead we settled on Slips of Speech because Vera felt she needed to brush up her English after 20 years living in a Mediterranean nation (I told Vera I wished most people could match her prose).

Now Vera has taken leave to give more focus to university. She's made the right decision, although I hope to see her back in the Writer's Cafe during the next long uni hols. That leaves me to assess Slips by myself.

I'm well into it, and my first impressions are generally favorable. Questions I hope to answer in my next Writer's Cafe post (by the end of the week, I hope) are:

• Can a book published in the US in 1895 help today's writers and speakers?
• Do you need to know terms like participle and infinitive and gerund to understand Bechtel's advice?
• How does Slips stand up against other books with the same aims – does it complement them, or do others do it all better?
• How sound is the advice? And how easy is the book to use?