THE WORLD IN A MUDDLE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1924, Page 4

THE WORLD IN A MUDDLE

POLITICIANS VYING WITH EACH OTHER IN PROMISES. Looking ut the situation as a wbwle to-day through the spectacles of a business man, the impression one got was one of some sadness, declared Sir Ernest Renn, in tin address to the members of the Yorkshire Centre of the Industrial League and Council at the Hotel .Metropole, Leeds, on March 20th. it appeared that the world was in a muddle. They knew all about how to produce things, how to make what they wanted, how to provide themselves with the advantages they desired to have, and yet, for reasons that wore very complicated, they did not seem able to get on with them. Tilings didn't move. The business man ought to be a little sad when it might be said that everyone might have all the material advantages which they desired and yet, because of differences amongst them, or lack of ability to get going properly, there was so much need, so much want, so much trouble.

The only hope of securing better material conditions for the workers and for all classes (continued Sir Ernest) is in the encouragement and. development of a competent class of business men working for the common good on individualistic and competitive lines. Now you will agree i throw down the gauntlet in putting- that proposition forward. Nowadays, when the whole tendency is towards collectivism, and die-hard Tories arc vying with (Tiinmunists in their enthusiasm for collective experiments of every sort and description, it is a hold pro-

position. POLITICS A SORT OK AUCTION

I am not formulating an attack on any particular political party, but on the general idea, held to some extent by all parties, that parliamentary or public or collective action can ever be a substitute for individual action in the realm of industry or business or in tin? creation of wealth. Polities has become, as I see it. a sort of an c.ur- • lion in which the numerous political parties hold out to Us various inducements, each one trying to outbid the other in the benefits they will confer upon us, from one, which shall be nameless, which provides, so we are told, “work for all"—at one time if was advertised as meaning two jobs for one mail—to other political parties which oiler you houses, and others again letter houses. It seems

to me we are ill measurable distance of the time when one, more enterprising Ilian the rest, will add fur coats and motor ears. The other day I was at the Ideal Home Exhibition in London, and walking through the aisles of that great hall, Olympia, I was impressed by the fact that there were in that line spot two or three thousand people, all of them. 1 suppose, manufacturers, offering every sort of convenience and comfort and advantage lor 1 1: home. You could have any-

thing on earth to put in your house, but you can’t gel the house. Taking a broad view of the situation. it seems to me that «r spin! the la-t century in discovering how to make things, how to produce tilings how (lie job might, lie done, and we have spent most of the first quarter of the present century in putting lip harriers, restrictions and limitations of all kinds, making ii impossible to do that job We spent the last hundred years in finding out huw to do. I waul lo give you a few ligilies they are scrappy figures because 1 found some dilliciilty in getting them, but they ale figures which show what has happened within the recollection ol us here, niul they serve to show hew we have been getting on and how we might have been getting on. I take these figure- quite at random ami throw them at you to create the impression j want to give you. I wilt lake ng-.tllcs fire. The ""'gilt •>!' hiv

materiel 11 -cd in Lsg’D in eotlon.s was 2l.T.lltll!.il!l'i lb ~ in |s.-,!i i; was !,ir2:{.(MJtl.titltl lbs., and in HU I it was 2,07!,OOd.lilM lbs. The weight of wool it-cd in I*2o was 1 Ift.llil'I.O'l!) lbs, in IO) it was 21 iiI.MIHI.OId lbs.and in 1011 it we.’ 7!R .000.000 Ihs. In ]B|l we consumed I 111 .-.on cf ten par head per annum, and in l!)|!l wo cinisumcd Mbs 7 ox per head per annum of the population. Our cnn.imnpi.ioii of sugar in I*ll was 17 lbs per head per aiimt!,!, or 50/ par wee!;, while io I!Mid it wa-' j !i", lb- pm h.-ad per annum, or J lbs | pm- v. eeli. That showed that the •sugar trade was giving you lonelily ten tinier the amount per head of 1 lie population, hut as tile population was lour tim.-.s as great, it was really giv-

ing us fort<- times as much sugar. The infant mortality rate in 1-51 wa - Isi per thousand of the pnpului ion, while in 1P22 it had con a down to 77 per thou-niid, or iust half. T ii-• average

length of life in the period from 1871 to !'-"*!> vrtts 11.1 years far males, and -ll.'J per females, and from Pfilll (o P-12 the rates were 51.5 for males and A. 7 for females.

These remarkable figures showed that, whatever the system, we have succeeded in adding three months to every year of life, 25 par cent to the life of each of ns, although we have not yet toi'.nd a way of making males liv • quite as long a- females. In I every man, woman and child in the population took three rides in trains, trains, or other vehicles, in i!e- <our.se of it year, while in IPOS’ every mail, woman mid child took Inree tides every week. Turning to beer, u must he confessed that v.c can't report similar progress, in 1801 we (i,men fed ourselves with 2! gallons P-s head, and ;n that had been increased to only 27\ gallons per head. There i-, however, this to he noted, that in KH the practice of private! brewing was widely carried oil, so

lii.it probably the figures denote an abst-hiie diminution in tlit* period. .1 gi'-;- vci these lii';:l'*.-- hi throw out I!j!suggestion t-> ytiii t]i:>L in tin* lasi !i:i 11 in I in* kisl cciilinv. ini to - ,r l years ago. wo were really mak•n.:; very wonderful progress. Now, havieg gat so tur--havii:g delivered as it were the sample—having (lone what was possible—we arrive at the stage wliieli reminds me of nothing quite >o much as .Moses and the Promised Land, and then we <eetn to get no further. We have come so far and J we are forbidden, as it were, to enter, j It is that stage, that plnise. that I j want to discuss. j

I am going to suggest that the troubles from which we suffer tire brought upon us by our own preference for talking about things rather than doing them :by our notion, j which we appear to accept on all hands, that wo can through public, parliamentary or corporate action, do what, in my judgment, in fact can only be done by each one of us in our individual capacity. 1 have done quite a lot of arguing with my Socialist friends and colleagues in the Industrial League. It is our favourite occupation. 1 fmcl it more and more difficult- li> discover what it is that some of these people want. They wax very eloquent about poverty and need and the lack of this, that and the other, and then the moment von seem

to bo getting them on to lines’ where it can be seen how these things can be reined tied, they veer right round and talk about materialism and the vulgarity of riches, wealth and comfort, and how they undermine our moral fibre. If it is wages, money, comfort, convenience, good houses, good clothes, good food, and better material conditions generally that they want, f submit, with • all sincerity, that they are not obtainable except through the medium of the business man.

Let me take a couple of leading questions very much in our minds at the moment—housing and unemployment. It seems to me that most of the discussion about unemployment i' wide of the mark. It may lie said nT us as a people that we have indulged in cowardly shirking of the real issue. AYe talk about Russia and the war, and wo are prepared to blame anybody and everybody except ourselves. \Yo have never got right down to the real issues on this question. I - rom the very nature oi things the politician cannot gel down to the essence of the matter. Here is the suggestion I have to make : that as consumers” you and I, all of us, arc not prepared lo accept the terms which we ask of ourselves as producers or, conversely, that as producers we are not willing to work for the price that as consumers we are prepared to pay. That is the matter which concerns each one of us.

THREE PO.SfSIRII.mES. AYe are all trying to got a bit more than we are willing to give, and so long as tbnt frame of mind continues, there will lie an ever growing volume of unemployment. Supposing I am a tailor and 1 ofTer a suit of elothes. I say the price of this suit is to. The nil'll who wants the clothes says 'T won’t pnv i.'o, I will pay CL" There you get a very simple, homely, everyday illustration. AA'hatever the system, whatever the constitution, what-

ever arrangement you make, no emplu.Miiwnt. nothing can happen until the tailor mid the customer come to some agreement. There are three possibilities, either the tailor accepts •_l, or the customer agrees to pay Co, or they agree between them on a of Cl Ids. lan until that agreement is arrived at, no clothes me made, there i> no employment, the tailor is out of work, and the man without elothes. What happens to-

day;-' A motherly Government comes along and discovers that the poor tailor is out of work. That ean't be: he must lie maintained until Ros-ia gets light, and so oil. and so tor tb ; and so lie is maintained. I am not arguing against the dole: it carried us over a diflieult period in a very wonderful way. I am merely asking you to realise wlnit is the position. What it is doing is to delay that agreement between the producer and the consumer Hint is the basis of prosperity of any sort or kind.

Wlnit- is the position with regard to houses;-' The producers of limt-es. whether rings, or trade unions, in their wisdom say. "We will produce houses at prices which arc equivalent to about ;«)S a week." The man who wants a house says. "I will milv have one it’ 1 can have one for P. a week." There again is a dill’eiem-e ol opinion between producer and consumer which will have to lie settled—another reason for unemployment. Don’t think I mn objecting. I am only asking llistt these things he .squarely laced. We have developed in this twentieth

ceiiiiny new notions of employment. AYe say a mail is entitled to woik at the woil; that he wants, at his own terms and his own conditions. Let ns

take a carpenter. Supposing; he does nothing hut saw wood, the only excuse for hi., existence is that hi-, neighbours want wood sawn. Presen f-

ly a moment arrives, for some reason or another, when there is no wood to saw. hut ncople do want some .digging done. We suv, "Oh m>. thi- man was <•;.!,divd l.v In-a. M-n to -aw word, and

if iiobii.K want - any wood snu, letan't do digging." AYe imt oiil.v e•ninm! work, hut our own purl i"iilar type of work. We are looking at tlliemployment question up-ide -.low ii We have a notion—an altogether faiho legs notion--that employment is an em! in itself, v. liereUs. a- a mat lei" oi filet, employment is only lietessu'y in Viler that wo may render sort ice in others and .supply the needs of at Iter's. A WORD AISOIT HOrHI-8 Why 111 we work r Not lor out health. We don't work because we iike ii. although I lone no doul-t w are all nmud of ike work lie do; and lieu her do we work to amuse ourselves. We work lor the benefit of I

our fellow creatures who want -outwork dene. The very root of the cmpaiyiiietit problem is to lie found on the shop counter, v.dier- our clients come in i"nl pat a shilling down for .seraelliiitg. That i- where the whole

thing starts and ends. If a woman doe.-ii’l come into til • shoo and put a shilling down for smm-hting, there is no eiiiployuiani lor tiu.xhndv. If she does, and she doc.-ii't g"t a deceiti shilling's worth, then she doe-n't go hack for another ■ hi'ling'.- wort!: ; and that is the lx ginning and the end ot the problem of employment. !l we who arc employed do every job with the t bought that we arc giving sal-s-

faction, then the people lor whom tht job is clone will com.* back an.l so uishall be creating employment. So long as eu-ry one of Its, fiuni the lawyer-dowiii-.aids. grab bold of a bit of work v.itli tlie idea of making it last as long as possible, of keeping it as long as p,is><bic, legurdiug it from liic p. ini of view oi how much wc can gel nut of it. we are creating iiiicniploymeiit. We mitsi create with our work a desire for more in the minds of the consumers, or we arc iiol doing our duly, and ue are providing for cur own unemployment in tlie future. Now a word or two about bouses. I am going to venture the opinion that «e arc nor going to gel these houses that are -o much talked about in high plates, 1 give you that as a business man. One simple rca-oii ithere i< a boss in this housing department of the .Ministry of Health. The present boss is .Mr Wheatley. Jf you look at the .Ministry of Health as a business establishment for the deliverv

of goods, you can come to no other conclusion. It lias had six busses in four years. Ilow can any establishment of any kind carrv on successfully like that-? There might l.e a chance of houses if you could fell me that .Mr Wheatley will he there for tile next 2d years; lint a knowledge of the situation prevents niy believing that he will be. .M.v strongest reason why 1 say you won't get these houses is this, that to give a £ooo house, plus the rates, for ‘Js p week is not a faildeal. It is an altogether immoral transaction, and for that reason you won't got them.

Another reason is this. The moment you start on these collective parliamentary lines, up go the prices. .ATr Wheatley has already seen £IOO a house go on in the course of a few weeks. This is not the result of auy eouspiraev, if is the sort of thing which is bound to happen when you are dealing with a wide market and a large number of people. The brickmakers are now wanting another few shillings a week. They assure us. and I believe them, that their demand has nothing to do with Mr Wheatley’s scheme. It is perfectly natural. It is no good blaming the bricklayer. You must blame the attempt to build houses with bits of paper in a ballot

box. Aly last reason is this : that Mr Wheatley will he superseded long before there is any chance of getting really properly settled in the job. I am not indulging in political prophecy. Supposing, that in the course of a month or two Mr AA'hcatley was likely to produce 250,000 houses at Os a week, there would at once arise front the conservative instincts of the other 8,000,000 householders in the country such a revulsion against this injustice that would throw him out of office. If lie does not succeed in getting the houses, his supporters will resent- his lack of fulfilment of his promise. Whichever way von look at if. whatever your views, you must admit that the best that we can hope for is that .Mr Wheatley will give way to his successor and we shall then start till over again.

It is a verv old question, is housing. There is nothing new about it. It has its roots, in niv personal judgment, in another and bigger question which lias almost disappeared in a most mysterious way front the programmes of all political parties—l mean the land. The housing question goes hack to 1.850, I think, when Parliament first took a hand in it. There arc upon the Statute Hook no fewer than .'!!“) Acts of Parliament, all duly honoured wiili the Royal Assent, providing for the housing of the working classes. Isn't it about time we gave the business man a chance;-' As a matter of actual fact it takes more lawyers than bricklayers lo put up a house to-day. Just imagine, when you think ol another subject, which is more directly my own -—new spa pel’s—wha t lias happened i ; 1 the hist 20 years. Think lor a moment what might have happened if the llarnisworth genius had been applied to houses instead of newspapers. There is another peculiarly loolish view that we seem to accept, which is.

in my view, very dangerous, i’.umiliodv seems to think to-day that the cost of living has got something lo do with wages; that is all uneconomic. ue.-oiiiid and purely lalse idea. It may he good polities, hut it is rank bad business. We are frequently told that wages are too low in view oi the .osl of living. This is a problem that wants handling. A man must live, ol course, hut. the cost of living has nothing whatever to do with hi* wages. It is neither an argument for

ii reduction nor an increase ol wages. The two are separate and distinct, and have nothing whniever to do with one allot her. It would he iu-t about as sensible to regulate wages by the stele of the weather or the helling odds or the ht• 1 1 1 rate. These lalse ideas clog the economic mecha-ii'in ami are at the hoi tom ol most of our troubles today. Wages come ottl of production; they can come from nowhere else. Tliev are inseparable from production and anything, whether an Act ol Parliament or a trades union regulation, which limits production, decreases real wages ami makes unemployment. AA’lien a job won’t stand a living wage, what about it f I am of opinion that that job might not to be done. A oil are only milting hack the clock a hen \ u are hol-lei ing up a job that never ought to ha done, with fictitious wages based upon the nisi ol living. A job that won’t stand a living wage is not

a niaii’s job. it is a machine’s job. Allot liar mm ter ibid seams to require disi nss it 111 is iha I 01 profit. There was a time when, a- a business man. I was a little proud to have made .-> profit, v. ben cue was a little proud of 1 lie's success. >0 befogged inis til.- nntinn'- on nudity become that V.I- have lea-li.-d the .stage when a business loin lias niimi't to apologise ! for a pielil. May I give yen a liypo- | thi-lii-ni i-:isi- to ~,-t ibis question into I its right 1 ar-pi e!e;- Supposing I discover a way of keeping water out rf i.ti-its", and in Mini wav wipe out about hall the illness in the world; and I make an arrangement whereby the rr-t 1 the people in this little I-lau ! pay !-• m * for that lit licit Ihe I .1 I 51.,„.t-| 1- ~ ~.!ll|. . 111 tiie i-i »■ .-ill Mate ol I boii-.do on tla'si- mutters, I have lint I lie 'lighl- ,- t.l 11:1 i. ah la ue.h 1 xloodd I - l-ene-l.n '.or 10 to - human me", that I should ’a held 1:; 110 public scorn as ; malei’ai ter. a millionaire living on the fat 1. the !_• 11 I at the expene o! oilier*, 'fil I •!!■:';■■! il v.: II Id be a Very good burgain iron! Ihe iia.licial point of \ iew. We might io '■ ■ out seeking I'm pi .*p! v. i'o <an do that sot t ol thing, :•: 1 I then we -li..t!!: 1 be gel ting on. Ii I u"I • I > give lII', ill-,-, lit icq to . tiltnation, i". u.n.ld l.e extremely doubtful if tin- 1 ..-:ii< a..-.lid ii"! slid be leaking. Pr> i\. • e'e 1 l.e 1 • Isl el good -.-rvice. can never anvil.lug ; ' e i„ tbe free u.ai.'.at ii a properly organised < ouiiuuiiitv. 'ilia im-ciiiive cf gain is a duel riuaiiv's myth. You can uit It i fie incentive oi gain, and ii won't lna.lt" a tv., penny i• i.••<•• • for you until you Ino find s .iiia way i I pint ing <1 - rvieo to your follow . wlm will then nuv von for it.

PiGiri'i' .MEANS EMPLOYMENT. INcv new ic'triciio 1 i- a spoke in the v, he. I opening up a new chance lor th- profiteer. Every little hit of profit, genuine profit, i- erammed full ol more employment. The idea that man I hr- uglmut the age- has keen all wrung, that the wisdom of the ancients did not ixisi. that history is one lung record of folly, and thill it lias he, 11 left to the youths and 111 :i it li-t 1•. of the present generation to know nil e.hoiii things would he funny if it. were n. t jri- hilullv serious. I don't want t-i give yon the impression !kn: I am opposed to social refarm, hut ! do suggest that if we wan; soii.d reform v.e must have good huMiie-s. Jhtsiness ami social reform mii-t a.) ham! in hand. Hn-mess inti -1 lie recognised for what it is as

!'. a service, the only means of proi- vuling tla- owes-iiii-e of life and the only -tiMrcc of those wider benefits s. which all true lovers of mankind deli sire to soc universally enjoyed. I am e not a po.-simisr. I think we are only it beginning our education in economic a manor-;, and wc are .getting along fairly well. Wo must go deeper, wc* must carry on the good work of dise (Mission such as takes place in the Jnii du-trial League. We must thresh a these questions out together, and then v we cannot- fail to arrive at a higher) r level of wi-dom. I will conclude with i two quotations, both a little deep. - The first is from Professor Marshall. the cloven of our living economists: * "It is a well-known fact that those ; clfc-cts of an economic cause which are ' not ea-ilv traced are frequently more ‘ important than, and in the opposite direction to. those which lie on the* surface and attract the eye of the casual observer. This is one of those fundamental difficulties which have underlain and troubled the eeoonomic analysis of past times; its full significance is perhaps not yet generally recognised and much more work may need to be clone before it is finally mastered.’’ Lastly a quotation from Kpictotus, who wrote:. "Appearances to the mind are of four kinds; things either are what they appear to lie, or they neither are nor appear to bo, or they are and do not appear to be, or | they are not and yet appear to he. Higlitly to weigh in all these cases is j tlie wise man’s task.” (