ECONOMIC ISSUES.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1921, Page 4

ECONOMIC ISSUES.

THE AMERICAN VIEW POINT

THE STANDARD OF DIVING. -11 l talk about the “standard of hr. ino.” of “living wage,” which looks merely to an advance of nmnev-wages is meaningless. Efforts along that hue , are fruitless. They travel ... a ei.,-le each wtii'c advance raising the cost of livim' It is impossible to divide .m\ Inure'" than is produced. Von cannot with fi00.000.000 bushels of 300,000.000 people six husbeb ; ' Tr is well to have an ideal stan.hu -t m ‘ , .. t ..t ic not someliving to work lor, but it. . thing that can be picked out of < 1,0 realised only as the ms.«,il. .»i"'* .J,,,.',,™,* mployri .« .» ttasm <lO t.tKu t- conditions surinclimitinns anl all tit,. ' j . u( . h rounding employment. nn .t iust relationship is dtsZ red tlm industrial nrganizatmn ‘i-Tt’ ""it lltont' whh h cloth without a fender until something goes wrong, and then stops and will do no more until that something is hj* o ’) . PUHbIC CONST IHC I JON. The demand for great expenditures upon public works to give employment to labor at present wages is lund.unentft Ily wrong, and so is every art.beta scheme to provide work at nillat ( costs, il is an attempt to evade and defeat the eiuuomic law. It assumes that society can lift itself by its Ixmtstraps. , , The cost of public construction would have to lie defrayed by bond issues which would mean more tax-exempt securities, more competition with bonds now outstanding and lower prices for them, it would mean heav.er burdens for tint taxpayers, and further depletion of the capital supplies irom which till- reel revival of industry must rume. Evcrv such increase in the burdens upon industry, every move that wastes capital in uneconomic- expedients, delavs recovery. The people who advocate such policies think they are dealing with a tempor.irv situation, hut this is not a temporary situation. Industry will not he ftclf-supporting again until it is brought back into balance, so that the products of the workers in the various lines will he naturally exchanged and absorbed. When one-half of tho population lias had ds compensation cut one-half it cannot alford to pay taxes to keep the other half employed at war wages. THE SITUATION WAITS.

It, is not difficult to see what fs the mutter with industry in the United States and over the world. The situation is practically the same everywhere. The demoralization and pnvertv of Europe. resulting from the war, is of course a factor in it, hill the chief calls,, even in Europe is not the losses of the war. but the unbalanced state of industry as between tbe producers of primary products on th,. one hand and the producers of manufaettired products and the groups engaged in trading and transportation oil the other hand. Tt is a rather familiar comment, and not a profound one. that there roust be smoothing wrong with the existing order of society. Evidently there is. R,icily stated, in a society that is essentially co-operative, peopl,-, are refusing to co-operate. AVe have developed a, highly specialized, interdependent. hut voluntary system of industry, so complicated that many people

do not understand their own responsibilities in it. Tlier,. seems to he nothing to do but allow the economic forces to work things out in their own relentless way. The''workers in each industry have tho privilege of saying that they will not come down until everybody els,, does, and perhaps not then. Nobody has authority to say who shall come down first, or that anybody shall cam,, down. They will have to settle it among themselves Meanwhile, however, millions of men arc idle and millions of wages arc he ing lost. Tt is a pity the agony must be so long drawn out, a pity tbe inevitable adjustments cannot be quickly made, with intelligent comprehension and a. co-operative spirit. A machine cannot b,, started unless all its parts arc in right relation to each other; and it is the same with the industrial organization of the country and tho world. THE WAV OF HEAD PROGRESS Tim way of real progress is not hv the ~(foils of cadi group or class to get tho of others by methods which embarrass and curtail the production of wealth, but by intelligent efforts to increase production. All of the progress of the past has been accomplished in this manner. The greatest factor has been the new investments of capital, proriding machinery to take the plac,. of hand labour. Every new device which makes labor more efficient. sets labor fro,, to do something els,, that will contribute to the general welfare. It is by this method alone that the standard of licit!" is raised.