The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 15. THE CRUELTY OF ENTERPRISE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 15 August 1907, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 15. THE CRUELTY OF ENTERPRISE.

the cable recently published in our ■olumus setting out that the Standard )il Company of America had its teiuclca ill the nie'kle ore business of Canada, ads us thial.ing that inodern enterprise

s about the most remorseless, monster ' .hat cur-es our civilisation. Nothing .» sacred to euterprise. \iy tin: exer,'isc of lli.' faculty ui oclv.ing every opinirtunity the man who has already ten limes more money than he or bis can possibly have any Use for, is able to si rew i'.• earth with trouble and make, lit'., for many an absolute hell. By a single «ipe>'.!tion these U'Usl criminals i.iii, with luck, corner the food supplies hi the people who are thus their bond -Lives. A lew years ago an American trust actually destroyed nearly the vwiole of the cotton crop of the Southern States for purposes of their own, and at a time when there were billions of! starring people who could have b-en relieved greatly by the money that that huge crop would have bought in the markets. The bell-wether faculty of tb' people always linds an outlet when ,-ome person more bold than his felb vs iias nullicienl, enterprise to enter into some business not hitherto attempted in his town. We will say, for instance, that a man in a smalt town sets up as a saddler, lie thrives ill a modest way. Somebody else sees that he is doing rather well and dumps his bundle in l.lio town. It is all by way of progress,

of course, ami pcif -elly legitimate, but how often does one lind that where one nun ma.) have made :i living two of a trade will siurvt;? The limu who litis the enterprise to b.'gin an industry is, often enough, the victim of his own faith. Enterprise generally means bigger buildings and more strrmosity, inn p.; grind, mostly by the man who hasn't the enterprise, but who supplies the motive, power. Enterprise nukes mannikins of children and children of adults. In the desire to "get on" many people do not trouble to examI ine the broken hearts lliey clindi by.

America in to-day the one outs:aiming j example of the cruelty of enterprise, j It i* the land of millions.' fortunes and illimitable poverty. It is the land of the millionaire philanthropist who has I to kill people by thousands to be able to ellect his kindnesses. It is the land of the young mvu, for the old men die of enterprise. 'Enterprise is also frequently the faculty of discovering your fellow men sleeping with their trousers hung over thj end of the bed. This is your chance. Take it. There is a purse in the pocket of the sleeper, (let rich honestly if you can—but get rich, it is an Americ inism that is believed and acted on in that country and in maay

oilier countries. The earth is bored and tunnelled until it is as full of holes as a honeycomb. Cold i.i valuable because man has given it a value. Th .■ enterprising man is after gold all the time. Which hist rejiiark is a little unjust. There are inventors who hate conferred immense boons on the human iaec but who lacked enterprise in pushing their own claims. They are in gaol or dead or In lunatic asylums or the workhouses.

It is the man who has enterprise but who couldn't iinvnt anything but a lie who scoria and lives in palaces. One l time Britons ploughed their fields with I a heavy stick. -Many people on the ('ontinent and in Asia still do so. Enterprise will stir them up. Jt will show ilh'iii Up western's idea of progress. It will give them enterprise. It will show llieiii that while there is a height to be gained by commercial enterprise. Hit.- is something left to the man with the sti>-k ph ugh in physical power. Knterpris,. wakes the savage mind that has slept for centuries. It has awakened' the miihl of the .lap. and now, thanks to Western i-ni -rpri-e, the miml of the Hindoo is waking up to the value of enterprise. The greed of the enterprising man is the first knoll of his dissolution. If the enterprising man could lint shepherd his enterprise and be eonlent to n<e it in his own country or the eouiiiiios of Ids race lie would' be less iu danger. Hut Ills enterprise is epidemic. The heathen learns it. lie is learning it all over the world. The simple old faiths are being shattered by enterprise. Native, races which never knew sin (according to their lights) have been "converted" by the enterprising missionary and the earth is allamc with the awakening people who begin to see their equality with the men who usually go to their lands on business, Leach them all they know and wonder why they us.' their knowledge. In the days to tome perhaps someone may think of rest. Kveu enterprise could do with a spell. It is probaldy too soon in N'ew Zealand to talk about taking a reef in the sail of enterprise, but in other lands more strenuous where enterprise spells destruction to the majority and wealth and unhappiuess to the minority, elny.-roeling is more necess;ry than any other thing.