RIGHTS OF PROPERTY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1512, 7 August 1912, Page 8

RIGHTS OF PROPERTY.

BUSINESS AND MORALS. PROBLEM OF CAPITAL AND LABOUR. SEIiMON BY »K. tSTBIS. At St. John's Church on Sunday evening, Dr. Gibb, who is delivering n course of .sermons ok the Decalogue, took as his thi'ino the Eighth Commandment— Thou siuilt not steal. There was a very large congregation. This was the' Commandment (said Dr. Gibb)' which safeguards the rights of property. It aimed at making >ure to each man what was his very own. Opinions might differ as to wluit really was a man's very own, and that question he proposed to discuss in a further sermon, but tor the present a sufficient definition might be: Property is that which has been honestly acquired, whether as the. gift of a relative or benefactor, or earned by ths sweat of brow or brain. The Eighth Commandment secured lo the holders of all such property the right to its exclusive possession and, Use. And it grounded this right in the Will i.-f Clod. .Many other grounds had boon alleged, but according to the Scriptures the right of i property is analogous to the right of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. It did not oonin from .man. It is not given by man. It rests on the Will of God. But this Will was not in any matter arbitrary, and certainly not here. It was related to the constitution of our nature and our relations to persons and things around' us. The desire of things that shall be our very own liad been a factor of the highest moment in the. subjugation of- the. earth to meet man's needs; and in the development of his bodily, mental, and moral faculties. The truth of this content inn was fully argued and illustrated. Trade Usage. ' Violations of a man's' right to his own: Three classes of these were stated, butonly one, namely, fraud, was dwelt upon. There was no need to dwell on what was usually known by the name of theft—the thief whether of the sneak or the Bill Sykre type was universally detested and condemned. But it was otherwise with fraud, the name given to the most familiar modern violation of the property right. These violations, it had been truly said, had become "systematic, widespread, and almost incurable." r(l) Adulteration, an offence which affected both the pockets and the health of those against whom it was perpetrated. The- charitable cloak of "trade usage" was Hung over this kind of peculation, but if trade usage spelt.out theft then let it be called by its proper name. Adulteration of. food-was pprim'ssible only when the purchaser. .was informed that the article was not pure; when the adulterating medium was perfectly wholesome .'in itself; when the' purchaser preferred the, adulterated articlfe to, the .genuine, and-.paid .la'rsiiiullbr price.' .If." you prefer-.chicory, with -your' coffee, by'all mean's linve.it; but if-you want pure-coffee, -'ami any man.,sell's.'yoH coffee and chicory,.the.nanie of that, inan is a' knave., -It .was unquestionable that adulteration, of. food and clothing,. as well as liquors,' was deplorably common. Inside the trades this was winked at as custom. Outside- the trade such practices unhappily entailed neither loss of repute nor public penalties. (2) The whole system of selling and advertisi;iK wares was only too' often stained with falsehood. A .distinguished •English divine, speaking of his own country,' said that "Inferior wares tire ticketed as superior,'.. or extra: Why, but to impose upon the ignorance 6i the customer? Sri that the dealer ' whose, .superior trade knowledge ought in fairness to'guide his customers to a judicious purchase, is found to abuse his position in order to enhance his profit." Was it any better in New Zealand? Probably not. This only ought to be said on the other side: That there are many honest men engaged in business who adopt, as 'every man, must if he is not to go to the wall, this method of advertisement to help in disposing of their wares is unquestionable. To fling out indiscriminate charges against a whole class was to encourage the belief that their very position renders honesty impossible. The Trado Ring. (3) A third breach of the Commandment was the enhancing and depressing of the value of articles of commerce—a practice which, especially in America, in the shape of rings, and trusts, and combines, and betting on margins was entrenched behind a solid phalanx of heaped-up capital; and was a standing menace to the welfare of the nation. Some of these •methods were described and denounced as robbing the poor, taking the bread out of the months of the people. The belief was expressed that, there was even in New Zealand signs and symptoms of tho coming of the trade ring whose object was to keep up prices above their natural and fair level. It was hard, said Dr. Gibb, to get at the bedrock of fact and justice on these matters. Here, on one side, was tho combination, of labour, intent at all hazards on raising tho rate of wages; on the other, numbers of men. who are already securing a very indifferent return on their capital and the brains and energy expended in their business. If tho increase of wages affected only the swollen plutocrat, whose business was already paying handsomely—" well, jn that case, let the galled jade wince. There were, however, many men engaged in business who had a very hard struggle to-make ends meet. But, however much they might pity such, it had to bo said that the trust and corner was a conspiracy to defraud, a breach of the Eighth C'ommandmant, a violation of' the Law of God. < Employer and Workman, • (4) A fourth' phase of the matter was found in the relationships between capital and labour, between einployer ' and workman. Reference was made to the absolute duty of the employer to pay his workers wages that would keep (hem in healthy happy existence. It was tho basest of crimes to heap up profits coined from the life-blood of. the workers. But even granting that there were cm. ployers of labour in this country so base that they would 'do even this, if they could, it was a plain matter of fact that in most instances they simply could not. The combination of workers with the appeal to the law of the land, in the shape of tho Arbitration Court, had made that kind of dastardism impossible. Dr. Gibb, in saying this, did not'wish it to be supposed that ho dreamed that they in New Zealand had solved the problem of capital and labour. More would be said on the point next Sunday, when the problem of the distribution of wealth was considered, but he gave it as his judgment that there was only one way out—the wav of co-operation and profit-sharing which would not only secure for the worker a share in the profits of the wealth to whose creation he is indispensable, .but would effect a mutuality of interest and oneness of aim, which would put a final end to the barbnrous and portentous strife now waged between the employer and his workers. Limiting the Output. But there was more than the workers' side to this question of just wages; there was also the employers' side. The employer robs his workman if he does not pay him adequate wages; the workman robs his employer if he does not give him an adequate service for the wage he receives. To .get all the wage we can and give as little labour as possible was a breach of the Eighth Commandment, "We all know," said Br. Gibb, "the ideas on which the diminished output is based. The wealth of the world is inequitably distributed, and the notion is that bj limiting the-outpijt the workman's share will somehow be , increased., There nevei was a more foolish fallacy." The Rev, Charles Stlzle, chairman of the Labom Committee of the American Presbyterian Church;'and one of the sturdiest arid best informed of the workmen's friends in that grejt-country, said .recently: "On general principle's I_ say that the workerare not receiving a just share of the cominou products of onr industrial life. Bui there's many an individual workman wht needs a jolt instead of a jolly. He need? to realise that Hides'; he. gels into th< game with a whole heart and a strong will, he doesn't deserve what: -nine othei chap is digging out for him." . Christ's Law of Property. Reference was finally made to Christ'.low ' of .property. . which ran: "Let eiifcl in'nu seek not. his own, but. every mar another'* wealth." Properly -'.vs.? n mull": own as far as his neighbour .was con

:erued, but towards God ho was at the most only n trustee, a steward. It is to be used as God directs, with n single -ye to His glory and the good of fellownen. Let them bear in wind the truth ■o stonily yet so faithfully expressed by I'rofcssor Hodfje at the close of his exlnustive discussion of this Coininnndinent: '.Many who have flood well in society, ind even in the Church, will lie astonisOiwl at the last (lay to find the word thieves' written after their name in tho j rent 13ook of Judgment."