“CAPITAL IS ESSENTIAL”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 617, 20 March 1929, Page 11

“CAPITAL IS ESSENTIAL”

CHRISTCHURCH MAYOR ON SOCIALISM

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE DENOUNCED Press Association CHRISTCHURCH:, Tuesday. The absolute destruction of private capitalism was urged by the Mayor of Christchurch, the Rev. J. K. Archer, this morning, as the only true remedy for the economic troubles that exist in the world to-day. Mr. Archer, who dealt with the subject when extending a civic welcome to delegates to the conference of the Related” Printing Trades Association of Workers, said that the spirit of brotherhood should apply to houses, land and machinery, and to everything associated with the production and distribution of wealth. What he meafTt was that everything should be held in common and operated in common for the benefit of the community. “We can’t get rid of capital—capital is one of the essential things of life. It is not money, as is commonly supposed, but the machinery of life,” the Mayor added. “We don’t want to get rid of capitalists. What we want to do is to multiply capitalists fifty-fold so that every man who works is a capitalist.” The Rev. Mr. Archer said the remedy for the present conditions was not shorter hours. “There is absolutely no solution apart from absolute destruction of private capitalism. The root of evil of the world is private capitalism, private enterprise and private competition.”