CAPITAL AND WAGES.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 May 1922, Page 3

CAPITAL AND WAGES.

(Mercantile Ga.zette)

Representations have been made during the last three months to the British Government by the great industrial associations, and by ' men holding the highest positions in trade and commerce, that taxation is destroying the ability of the country to cariy on, and predicting that unless the Government takes steps to immediately relieve the burden, tlie result must end in public and private bankruptcy. These are serious words, and if it were not for the high positions held in the business circles of the world by those who used them, it might be thought that they were indulging in exaggerated rhetoric; but men of that position do not u uaily pose as scaremongers, and in this case tlife'y had no object but to bring before the Gofeeriiment that in continuing the existing taxation they were ruining the country, and that there was nothing in front of the nation but financial chaos. .

In all territories, whether fee inhabitants number ten or a hundred millions or, as in this one, where the population is a mere handful—about one-half of the numlier of those who live in ■ Glasgow—when Government absorbs in ! its various non-paying activities too great a share of the earnings of the people, the mischief is the same. Stagnation of enterprise means stagnation of development, and that spells ruin to any country. The movement must ho onward through each decade ; if progress lags behind, then conditions such :is exist in Spain and Portugal to-<lay come into being; there is loss of population and prestige resulting in their lieeoniing political nonentities. If a country has not sufficient capital belonging to the people, not introduced by way of loan, there is no enterprise, as excess of taxation means capital exhaustion followed by, inter alia, unemployment. We know that it is an obsession with certain demagogic and unlettered labour agitators that all labour ills are duo to capitalism, and if those leaders came into power they would attempt to put into force some system by which a substitute could he found in communism. But all experiments which have been made in this direction have given no hopeful result. Lane in Paraguay thought, thirty years ago, that he had found a solution fur poverty by pure communism, but those who remember his venture know how it failed to fulfil the aspirations of its author. Russia has attempted to she v that the communal system is superior to that which existetl there before, but peace and plenty have given way to starvation. A ruthless despotism, which has retained possession of power by murdering millions of Russism citizens, j has changed the country into a desert, the cities into shambles, with no other result than that the people are dying like Hies because under the communal system food has failed. Of a truth the complement of communism, judged by the Russian experi- ; ment, is cannibalism. None of our I workers would wish to wander in sue’- I untried fields, and their leaders have | shown no desire to personally choose I Petrogrnd or Moscow as a residence, nor to lead into the promised land o! , Trotsky and Lenin any group' of New j Zealand workers who. dissatisfied with ; tlie living they obtain;here /rom.tho use j of capital, wish to become citizens uiir j der tlie blood-dved banner of Russia, j If these leaders proposed some scheme j by which those who use their capital in J employing labour could he got rid of. we are certain that, with the exception of one or two sections, ninety ]>ei cent of the workers would veto any such experiment. They recognise, as all sensible persons do, that the converse ot communism, individualism, is the only svsteni under which the workman can retain his freedom, and that continuous employment at a fair wage can only be assured under settled political eomli- j tions and by tlie willingness of those I "who possess capital to embark in enterprises in which labour is required. They must have compensation tor its use in proportion to the risk they in- ,

Tlie whole question of labour tunas iipon that: if capital can lie profitably used labour will lie in demand am! increase ill price ; il it cannot, then tho inevitable result is produced—unemployment.