Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15th, 1925 CAPITALISM—LABOUR’S NIGHTMARE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2949, 15 October 1925, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15th, 1925 CAPITALISM —LABOUR’S NIGHTMARE.

$ MUCH is often made by advocates of Labour —especially when the near approach of a General Election quickens interest in such problems—of the dire effects of Capitalism upon the creature comforts of the masses, and to Hie Capitalist system is attributed most of our social problems—which Labour is so certain of solving if only they can gain sufficient support at the polls. Capitalism, when intelligently perceived, is found not to be the curse to society that some would have us believe, lml a system that has been evolved and elaborated as an outcome of man's industrial and social needs. Sir Ernest Bonn, a recognised authority on this subject, says Capitalism is an unl.'ortuate word used to describe the structure of the economic nerves or veins which maintain tlie material life of Society. Custom has driven us to its use, although there another _words which convey much better what we mean. Credit, exchange, balance, any of them, would better convey to the average mind a more correct view of what we mean when we say Capitalism. In any discussion on Capitalism if is almost always necessary to clear the mind of the quite irrelevant impressions conjured up by the word. Most people think at once of bags of money, mansions, jewels, motor cars, and millionaires. These things are really insignificant details when considering the big question of Capitalism as it affects the lives and comforts of the eommujntfy. A theory that Capitalism is in some mysterious way mixed up with the industrial revolution, has been spread with extraordinary assiduity by those who profess to be anxious to abolish it. Capitalism rests on saving, and saving is the first esential to human life. A house can only tie built provided that somebody lias saved up enough to provide the builders with lho food and clothes and other things'they require during the period of building, and before the house can he exchanged for the goods or services of the man who is going to live in it. The saving which is essentia! to all of us need not lie the work of any particular person. Some may prefer to employ the capital or savings of others rather than go to the trouble of accumulating their own. The ideal state would ho that in which all saved in equal proportions, but that is an impossibility. For all to save equally, all would have to receive equal incomes in return for equal service, hut as (lie people generally, if they are wise, will always assess services rendered to them at different values, according to their need for different sorts of service, so incomes.will vary and ability to save capital will lie unequal. Any alteration in this scheme of things must have the effect of robbing the people, as a whole, of the important right they possess under Capitalism of themselves deciding the value of services offered to them. Capitalism is, in effect, a consumers’ system under which the pudding is judged by the person who has to eat it, and not by the cook. It is in theory possible that it may be good fox* us that oui puddings should be prescribed, but the mo meat -tlie cook ceases to be the wage |

slave of the consumer and no longer has to satisfy him in order to be sure of a job, no further cooking is done, no more puddings are produced. The capital of the world at any one time may be defined as “that which remains of the savings of all previous generations,” or “that which has in the past been produced an not consumed.” Havregard to the admitted need for capital and to the fact that the individual in (he past has proved to he the only saving agent, objectors to Capitalism must as a preliminary to any discussion about an alteration of the system produce a, saving agent at leas) as effective and as reliable as the individual.