WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1928, Page 3

WELLINGTON NEWS

CAPITALISTS CON DEM NEI). [Special To Tiie Guakman.] WELLINGTON. November .j. It is quite the fashion with Labour Leader and Labour Politicians' to fulminate against capital and capitalists mid tiie capitalistic system is held in apparent abhorrence by many thoughtless workers. Without, capital and 4' e capitalist the present industrial system Mould experience a glorious smash, t apital is stored up labour or money saved, and by being lent to, or employed in industry, it earns its rate of interest or profit. But there are many people who think that this interest or pro.it taken by capital is not earned at all but is wrung out of the workers by a process (if extortion, but those who bold flu's view have a eomplcie misapprehension of the nature and origin ol capital. .Money can only be got honestly by work done or services rendered for which other people were • ead\ to pay. The capitalist lives on the work of others, but lie can only do so because lii‘ lias wrought himself in days gone byorbccaii.se someone else has wrought and handed on to him the fruits of his labour. There is much to be said I'mthe view that it is unfair that a man who has worked and saved should thereby he able to hand over to his son. who has never worked and saved, this right loan income which is derived from work (lone by somebody else. The evils that spring 'from hereditary property are obvious, but it may be questioned whether they outweigh the advantages that rise from it. The desire to possess is a strong stimulus to activity in production, localise possession is the mark of success in it. and all men like to feel flint they have succeeded ; and almost equally strong is the desire to band on to children or heirs the possessions that the worker’s energy has got for lib” In most men’s minds .the motive of possession implies that of being a’do i* hand on: they would not feel that they owned properly which they were bound to surrender to the state at their deaths.

Capita! has been aptly described as tin* seed corn of industry. If the whole world’s crop were oaten there would be no seed corn and no harvest. So it is with industry. Tf its wlidr product were turned into goods ifor immediate consumption there could be no further development of industry, and no maintenance of its existing plant which would soon wear out and perish. The* man who spends less than be earns

and puts' bis margin into industry keeps industry alive. Front the point of view of the worker, those who are prepared to save and put capital at the disposal of industry ought to be given every possible encouragement to do so. The more capital that is saved the more demand there will be for the brains and muscles of the workers, and the better the bargain these latter will be ableijto make lor the use of their brains,and muscles. It is to the interest of workers that there should be as many capitalists as psosible offering as much capital as possible to industry, so that industry shall he in a state of chronic glut of capital and scarcity of workers. 'the workers and the savers are at once partners and rivals. They are partners because one cannot do with r out lue other; rivals because they compete continually concerning their share c 7 the profit realised. 11 the workers are to succeed in this competition and secure for themselves an ever-increas-ing share of profit of industry—and from Lhe point of view of humanity, civik aition. nationality, and commonsense. it is most desiraule that , this should be so —then this is most likely .1 the severs are so numerous that they will he weak in bargaining and unable to stand out against ’ demands of the workers. Capital, which is the stock-in-trade of finance, is not-: a fraudulent, claim to take toll of Lhe product of industry, but an essential part of the foundation on which industry is built. Relloro any industry can start there must lie tools and a- fund out of which the workc'-s can be paid until the work that they do begins to tiring in its returns, the fund to buy these tools and pay the workers Can only be found out of the proceeds of work done or services rendered. . . Moreover, there is always a risk to be run. If an industry fails, the workers cease to he employed, in it; but as long as they work ifor it their wages ar e :l first charge which has to be paid before capital gets a penny of interest o" nrolit, and if the-failure ol the industry is complete the capital sunk in it will he gone. Instead of being con domned and abused the capitalist deserves every encouragement.