The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1920. CAPITAL’S RESPONSIBILITIES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3474, 30 April 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1920. CAPITAL ’S RESPONSIBILITIES.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

How sensitive capital is to the merest -suggestion of taxation is clearly indicated in the attitude of the British Chambers of Commerce, inconference, to the Gov-ernment’s;j proposal {to tax war profits. They declare the principle of taxation of war iv wealth to be unfair, ' even {though it is req”“uired for reduction of the national debt incurred for Iwar purposes. Is it not another in- } stance of capital endeavouring to shirk it its war responsibilities‘? British Chambers of "Commerce differentiate between’ capital being earned and capital thathas become part of an accumulated store; all the latter, they eonitend, required for the maintenance and development of industry, and they urge that the national war debt should be reduced bu current. profits, profits made after the war, not profits made while the debt was being incurred, a preponderance o’f which went into'their pockets. Cur_rent income and current profits they treat as being apart from capital, subI jects for taxation, while to~tax capital is unfair, and, they say, impracticable. The war debt has become a millstoncaround the British neck, choking its progress in every way. War debt was incurred largely by paying exorbitant profits charged by the very men who .‘are now nervous lest those profits be ‘-called upon to contribute towards relduction ofthe debt that constitutes a [real danger to reconstruction of British industry. It is probably because. the Government has consented to an increase of interest from six to seven per cent on the capital they have to invest that they, with bad grace, submit to having curreifi income and profits taxed, but that is no new experience with capital. Economists and I-capitalists with foresight and saner 5 views are expressing‘ 'the opinion that !the reconstruction of British industry will be so long delayed with the unreasonable attitude of capital that a growing multiplicity o‘f competitors in world markets will seriously water down whatever degree of success may I eventually be achieved. It seems that , I British Chambers of Commerce are far‘ ‘more concerned from the financial: viewpoint than from the viewpoint of commerce, the industrial aspect, apiparently, does not concern them, and yet who will deny that in industry lies the saving power of the Empire? They never raised a voice against trading ships being held up in congested British ports, yet they are now asking for an invcst.igation.- It has dawned upon the Imperial authorities that industrial trouble will become intensified unless more shipping is available to transport; food. and products generally, and ships are being released, and their cargoes sold at prices more closely related to cost. It is while the British Chambers of Commerce are experiencing a new activity in shipping they insincerely ask for investigation. Their demand for inquiry would have -been useful a year ago, but their requests are now valueless from every point of view. The Food Controller has abandoned his intention to arbitrarily fix the price of mutton, and butchers predict a rapid fall in prices, and a. largely increased consumption. There was a glut of meat, which had become a great source 'o‘f probable industrial trouble; meat was ‘being held up to the decaying point, while the masses in Britain could not -buy meat at any price. The authorities are new empty-

ing ships, much to the chagrin of meat corners, and are reaping the harvest of rnalignity meat cor.ners‘are heaping upon them. People are asked to‘ be.lieve that the British Government is charging British people one-third more for two-your-old stale lamb than they are selling fresh lamb, from New Zealand, for in America. They see in the liberated Ships an increase of both exports and imports, indicnting that their monopoly-making is doomed. The British authorities are painfully aware that orgies of finance and conlmereia.l--ism do not create wealth; that all the sleight-of-hand whereby ‘money is taken ‘from industry and stored in capitalist coffers, is adding not 3. penny to the wealth of the Empire; .th:-rt it is a process of shortage creation involving industrial enfeeblement. Increased taxation is necessary for reducing the war debt, and the Government must needs follow war profits, for industry is already overtaxed; industry must be encouraged to {L far greater volume before it can be depended upon to contribute much direct or ‘indirect taxation towards reducing the nationzil war debt. Nothing more reasonable or more logiceil can be suggested than that war profits should be

itaxed to pay the national War bills. * When faced with such a proposal, war profit capitalists retort, the whole thing is unfair and impracticable. Tax current incomes and profits, but not war capital, that is wanted for main’taining and developing industries. Had capital been used in maintaining and increasing primary and secondary production instead of throwing away millions on new, doubtful speculations, the volume and intensity of industrial unrest would have been negligible, in'stead of being -a serious menace to the peace of the world. Peoples call for peace and there is .no peace because capital does not desire, peace, hence neighbour is at war with neighbour and nation is at war with nation. It is notable that at no time -since Germany decided upon war has the world’s atmosphere been so charged with war and of rumours of war; it is new man against man, class against class, community against community, and Empire against Empire. The threat. of industrial war, o‘f‘civil war, and revolution was nevevfgreater, and yet capital goes on with its. dog-banquets and cow feasts, not realising the significance of the writing on.. the banquet room wall. "Governments, especially‘ Allied Government, show by the con-,‘ eern they are displaying in fervent, efi'orts to avert war. revolution, and in- l dnstrial unrest, that peoples are not; of liniitless forbearance. Whether it‘ be in Britain, in the self--governing‘ Doininions, or in India, and other colonial possessions. risings of the peo- Q ple are in disconcerting ‘evidence. Need capital be surprised if the masses act revengefully? Is New Zealand’s Government. incapable of maintaining industrial peace? Is it bankrupt: of that resource-'fulness which, it seems, is alone serviceable in keeping blood stains from the national escutcheon We say again, the British Government has fully realised that. money is not made by the jugglery of finance; that industry is the sole creator of the wealth that alone can. be depended up-I on for reducing the national. war debt. 1