THE GET AGAINST CAPITAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 45, 21 February 1878, Page 4

THE GET AGAINST CAPITAL.

The following is an extract from the reportof Mr Service's speech to the Melbourne electors :-— He would like to direct their attention to a cry which had been raised in some quarters against capital. There had bean a cry of down with tho black hats and the white waistcoats, but they must all remember that capital was not confined to the rich man. Every man who owned a house or a child, who had £5 in his saving 3 bank, wsa a capitalist in the strictest ssnee of the term. In speaking. of capital and capitalists, they must not suppose that they were speaking of people who were 'not (or them because they were rich. In dealing with capital they must remember that it was thelifeVblood of tha country ; that in proportion to the amount, of capital ia the country, bo would would be the wageß paid. The increased capital had helped *o enrich the country, and it could only enrich (he country by enriching the individuals ia it. There was never such a period of prosperity in tho country as there was when the price of wool v?ag high in London, because the squat tera came to Melbourne and laviehly spent the money which Ihey had so easily gained. If they had not got that money, whsre would the men who had built tboir villa?, and participated in the expenditure, Have been. The ie!ations between the grades of society wore so close that they could not attnek one without injuring the other. Ho then narrated an incident which wee reported to have occurred in an omnibus, where a hornyhanded son was talking aboutthe men who wore black hats and white waistcoats being made to pay their fair share of taxes, and Whore a man in the conveyance who wore a white waistcoat said that if he was to be further troubled because he wore such aa article of dress his washerwoman would have to suffer. They had heard a great deal about a proper distribution of the capital of the country. He should like to see every man have his fair Bhare of the increased capital, and to see every man between fifty and fifty-five years of age be able to retire to his cottage and enjoy himsalf for the rest of hia life, but he was not such a fool as to come there to tell them that could bo done ia the present state of society. In all ages they had had rich and poor, and they were told that they would nlways have the poor amongst them. They could not avoid them by legislation, or by any efforts put forth for them by honest men in the race for riches, which every one wes running.