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Hokitika Guardian, 3 April 1922, Page 2

Society the world over is in a state of disorganisation and contusion. Millions of workers arc without employment or regular income and their dependent families are in distress, fn the-United States, remarks a financial journal, the crops of foodstuffs have been ample, but the producers are unable to buy. That this state of affairs is deplorable all are agreed. Nobody desires it to continue, but there is lack of agreement as to what may be dou e to remedy the situation. There is a prevalent opinion that some authority or group of leaders might set everything right if only it was impressed with the necessity for doing *». Financiers receive letters, evidently written in all sincerity, urging that the great banks take speedy steps to afford relief. The banks are as much interested in the revival of prosperity as anybody can be, but have no control over the situation. The Government at Washington is urged from many quarters to do something forthwith, but the officials of the Government have eiit>ugh to do to Inake its own financial ends meet. The Govenimdrit has no control over the fundamental factors in the preset situation. Prosperity is a state which exists when everybody is able to readily exchange his labor or products for the labor or products of others. The terras of those exchanges have to be agreed upon by the immediate parties to them. Neither tlie Government nor the bankers can say how many bushels of corn shall exchange for a pair of shoes, a suit of clothes or a ton of coal, and these exchanges are the seat of this present disorder. When it suddenly takes two or three times as many bushels of corn to buy shoes or clothing, stagnation in the shoe and clothing industries naturally results. The purchasing power of the corn-growers is curtailed.

The explanation of the disorder v#aich exists in industry is largely in the j state of mind of the workers. It cannot be doubted that as a result of agi tation that has been going on for years the wage-earning population has become to some extent Imbued with the idea that wage-earners have been unfairly dealt with by the employing class. Many of them believe that they have not received a fair share of the fruits of their labors and have determined to do less work and get more for it. One natural effect of this belief is to reduce the efficiency of the individual worker. Of course no one will work with good heart if he thinks lie is unfairly dealt with. Another effect is ft want of harmony between organised labour and the employers which interferes with the effective direction and management of industry. Of what use is it to appeal to bankers or employers for remedies' for unemployment (when their opinions and advice are viewed with suspicion and they (.an do nothing without co-operation ? What is the truth about the division of the industrial product? Do employers as a class obtain an excessive and unfair share of it and the wage-earners as a rule less than they ought to have? Is the distribution an arbitrary one. determined by employers to suit themselves or it is a varying one, determined by industrial condition# and economic law? Numerous calculations have been made from time to time bv statisticians from the available data and the data is increasing from year to year as statistical reports upon production are extended and made more complete. The income reports required by the government, in connection with its system of taxation have added much to available material.