Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1920. RECONSTRUCTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 January 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1920. RECONSTRUCTION.

Ox this subject; (j contemporary remarked recently that file war is blamed for the host of perplexities ,\vhigh, Rke a stifling cloud, envelopes our lives. But the charge is a false ope. The war was nothing more than a, precipitant of those troubles that had been gathering in the air above our heads. Doubtless the great struggle added new factors

to the problem, and may have exaggerated muijij,- that already existed. But, mainly, its function was. that of a precipitant. Durjng the pyogi&ftg of the wur we saw organisation raised to the ninth degree—the very aoptheosis of order and system. This concentration of organised effort °n ( e direction bred a sympathetic disorganisation in

all others. But, what it bred, it also offset. When hostilities ceased, organisation, without the balancing elements, became accentuated, and hastens npw the inevitable reconstruction of social ;jnd economic conditions. Some men, may, because of special gifts or intellectual cultivation, see the problems clearly, and sp kuu;y for what goals they shall strive. But flip plain man, overwhelmed by the involved character of world and home affairs, remains in

a state of mental fog—the victim of JpJpJes.s bewilderment. Two tilings lie believes he Jfgows of and understands —profiteering and t/ie high cost of living. He regards the latter as the effect of the former, and clamours for the legislative axe. Simultaneously comes the demand for “a living wage” —a perfectly natural and justifiable claim. But who shall tell us w.liat is “a living wage? What. Board of Trade or Royal Commission or Council is there that intelligently deliberates the point, and is sanguine of being able to suggest anything that shall be more than a palliative of the most transient kind.

There is always in action the “vicious circle”—the “fatal spiral”—the endless sequence of increased wages followed by higher prices. And, ihj?re is a distinct anomaly. Let theAvages and the living cost increase'' proportionately, and, instead of maintenance of ratio, the incidence of the higher living cost

will be disproportionately heavier. This is undoubtedly a paradox—the lowering of wages by increasing them. On every hand, the inflation of prices is alarming to the ordinary householder. Profiteering is indicted as the main, if not the chief, creative agent. But, would the abolition of the taking of an excessive profit prove a solution ? If so, the remedy having been found, there will be no further need to increase the minimum wage to meet conditions that no longer exist. It is not only the manufacturer who is charged with exorbitancy. The retailer is believed to be knit with him in a souless, conscienceless league of commercial brigandage. But, surely these are “scare” ideas, and high prices are attributable, as they have ever been, to dearth or demand. It is the operation of “circle”

again. Would the equal distribution of wealth on any socialistic plan provide a solution ? Most certainly not. It is in the concentration of wealth that the chief sources of production lie. Whatever course is pursued, whether it he the heavier taxation of large estates or the increment of the wage-scale, it will probably he found as vain and inefficacious as any experiment already tried. Out of this welter of uncertainty and insecurity are thrust the hydra-headed difficulties that beset the world. To lop their heads by BolsheI vism, strike, riot, or blind force of whatever kind, is but to produce a duplication of the troubles. They must he burned with the cautery of statesmanship, assisted by the calm patience that knows how to serve by waiting. But, have we not a tendency to look toe much to the Legislatures for the discovery and application of social and economic panaceas? In all fairness, however, we are entitled to say that wc find Parliament stumbling at the heels

of progress instead of pointing the way. It would appear that amelioration of living conditions is the duty, and must be the policy, of capital. It is impossible that it can proceed from the workers. And,' in its own interests—for its very life—the moneyed interests will be compelled to adopt a widely sympathetic and generous attitude to the needs and rights of the working classes. It is not too much to say that civilised society—if not civilisatiin itself — is in a state of flux. And it behoves every man of power or influence to exert himself to the utmost for the public good, which, after all, is his own good. Let him remember this, if he needs a mercenary stimulus to action.