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Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1928, Page 2

Somkthing of the inside history of the United States is revealed li.v an ititimate article by -Mr Wickham Steed. in the course of a statement in the London ‘‘Observer,” wherein he writes reward ill" the beliefs of .Mr Hoover, a very prominent character in the jwilitienl life of America, and one who has prospects, if not ambitions, of being I’reisidient of the great States this year. Mr Hoover believes America to he going through a great social revolution. Certain industries have organised themselves to such an extent that they are now too big to be bought or controlled liv any one man. The leaders of those industries are convinced that contented and prosperous workmen are iudispensible to productivity. and that true industrial efficiency depends upon high wages and low selling prices. They look upon capital as a necessary commodity that -h'lldd lie bought in the eheapest market. bin .should not be remunerated beyond its market price. Any surplus protits made bv its instrumentality should be “shot at the workmen''--ad-ministrators. managers, and organisers being included among the workmen. fhe.se administrators am! organisers arc tending increasingly la he professional experts, not capitalists interested in buying labour as cheap as possible and selling its produce as clear as possible. Most of the American labour unions have accepted the principle that productivity is the sine qua non of high wages. They have got as far away from Kark .Marx as American business men have got away from Adam Smith. . Business men, Mr Hoover is said to believe l , are going through a moral revolution of another kind. They are sick of the ordinary churches, and are forming what are, in reality, “lay churches” of their own in the shape of Hotary and Tviwani (or •lunior Hotary) clubs, and hundreds of other organisations for preaching and practising the doctrines of service and social co-operation. Thus a now ?oial order is gradually being born throughout the United States. The old i Anglo-Saxon instinct for mutual effort | is reasserting itself. If similar revolutions could take place in Great Britain, a now bond of sympathy might he created between the two principal branches of the English-speaking world.