CARGO HANDLING AT PORTS 
disguising the fact that mechanical appliances, in order to 
justify their adoption, must be labour-saving. Where the 
dock labourer makes a mistake in his opposition is in short- 
sightedly refusing to recognise that the reduction in the 
manual labour required is only temporary, and that with 
an increased output, or turnover, there will be ultimately, 
and probably at very short date, correspondingly increased 
opportunities for more labour, and that of a less arduous 
and more intelligent kind, while the advantage to the 
general community, of which he is equally and essentially 
a unit, by cheapening the cost of transport, can hardly be 
over-estimated. 
CONSERVATISM. 
But conservatism in port working is not confined to the 
ranks of the uneducated. There are often to be found 
prejudices arising out of a more or less unreasoning adherence 
to what is termed the custom of a port.” As an instance 
of the extent to which long-established practices are per- 
petuated after the necessity for them has entirely disappeared 
may be quoted the following extract from a recent press 
article * on the subject of the trade term: * Custom of the 
Port’ — 
« Re-bagging of Grain.—Much faith is still pinned at 
the port of Hull to hand labour in the discharge of grain 
cargoes, and to this custom is attributed the comparative 
neglect of a large modern silo and elevator plant in the 
King George Dock. 
“ Quite lately, shipowners, who had not previously 
engaged in the trade, were surprised to learn that when 
steamers arrived at the port from the Pacific Coast of North 
America with cargoes of grain in bags, it was customary 
for men employed by the consignees to enter the holds, 
empty the grain from the bags, and put it into fresh bags. 
One explanation to account for this unusual proceeding was 
that the consignees preferred that the grain should be 
marketed in bags bearing their own description, rather 
¢ Times Trade and Encineering Supplement, June 3oth, 1923.