The Dominion FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1920. AN APPEAL THAT NEEDS ATTENTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 202, 21 May 1920, Page 6

The Dominion FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1920. AN APPEAL THAT NEEDS ATTENTION

It would be interesting to know just how njany people paid serious attention to the note of warning struck by the Prime Minister on Wednesday night, when he urged the imperative necessity of curtailing extravagance and practising sound economy. A widespread | habit has developed of regarding such utterances by responsible public men as proper and even praiseworthy, but also as something apart from the ordinary practical affairs of life. There was a timo when this happy-go-lucky indifference did no great harm, but that time most rertainly has passed. It needs to l)o understood Toy every man and woman in this country that in the circumstances by which it is faced an appeal for uational economy is an appeal to the whole of its people, and that unless they individually liced tho appeal, they will individually and collectively pay the penalty. Although the Dominion is seriously burdened and almost endless demands are being m/ido upon its national resources it certainly is not incapable of surmounting its difficulties and meeting all legitimate demands if its peoplo pull intelligently together. But there is ample justification for Mr. .Massey's statement that a wave of commercial and industrial depression can be avoided only by care, economy and industry on the part of the i people of this country. Thß Dominion has moved into critical years and the degree of prosperity maintained during- these years will depend much less on what is done by tho Government than upon the extent to which its people individually are awakened to a responsible interest in their own behalf.

Those who are not incurably careless or indifferent will most clearly perceive their individual responsibility—their individual interest in such an appeal as the Prime Minister made the other evening— by considering what national economy amounts to. Important as it 'is, the elimination of waste and extravagance, as these terms are ordinarily used, is not the most important aspect of national economy. Sound national economy means above all things sound enterprise. It means such a guidanco of effort and expenditure as will produce cjuick and ample returns in materjal welfare and in the finer and greater things of life which as a rule are to bo attained only when material welfare is available as a firm foundation on which to build. Looking for the moment only at material factors, it is obvious enough that with .the possibility at least of a decline in the prices of certain lines of export produce upon tho sale of which our national prosperity is largely based, a great increase in production from the land is absolutely essential in order that the Dominion may meet successfully tho enormous and increasing demands that are being made upon its resources. _ Theje is scope also for a revolutionary changc in the methods of carrying out development works. Sound economy demands that such undertakings should be pushed' rapidly to completion so as to produce early and profitable returns. In these directions and others there is much room for useful initiative on tho part of the 'Government. But when all is said and done, tho Government can only give a lead. It can appeal for and to some extent assist national economy and enterprise, but it rests with the people themselves to say whether there is to be any real response to the appeal. At bottom national economy and the all-important benefits it offers are possible or-impossible as the people are or are not capable of honestly combining their efforts for the common- good. The supreme condition of national. economy is fair dealing between man and man. Where this condition is withheld, as it too frequently is in industrial and commercial affairs as they are at present ordered in the Dominion, national economy and the efficient community of effort it chiefly implies are evidently unattainable. Although in this matter as in others the faults are not all on one side, by far the. greatest obstacle at present raised in this country to the institution of sound national economy is the a large proportion of its wage-earners of the policy of exacting the highest possible wage in cxchango for the lowest possible production. Any straightforward, obsorver is bound to agree that there are in other directions economic injustices and abuses that call urgently for remedy, but the correction of such evils is only impeded and delayed by tho policy, now so extensively jp favour with sections of organised Labour, of limited effort in conjunction with unlimited wages demands. Any man or woman may readily weigh for themselves the merits of this policy if they consider that each wage-earner, while he works commonly for one employer, is himself indirectly the employer of scores, if not hundreds of his fellow-citizens. Let it be admitted thai a worker, at a dired and immediate vjew, gains some questionable advantage in giving as little and taking as much as he can. But he is. at the same time countenancing an industrial policy which, as it is taken up by others, recoils upon him in scores of different ways. He cannot complain if his own tactics are adopted b,v those who build his house, manufacture and sell his clothing and boots, grow and transport his food, run the tramways and railways on which" ho may frequently depend, and so ad infinitum. These are only a few items from a catalogue that might be extended indefinitely. It is self-evidont that even in the narrowest view any advantage a worker gains by extorting a high wage for a poor day's work is immensely outmeasurcd by tho losses he suiters in all directions as the same policy extends. The essential result of this policy is a general lowering of prosperity which is felt most heavily by wage-earners. The moral is plain. The first practical step in this country towards instituting sound national economy is to bring employers and workers together in representative conference with a view to boldly remodelling industrial conditions. Until the parties in industry agree to work together in cordial harmony, making increased production their com-

raon aim, as it is tlieir common intcroefc, there will be 110 real approach to the national economy which alone will lift this country out of its present and prospective difficulties and give its people flourishing prosperity.