The Daily News FRIDAY, JUNE 26. WEALTH AND ITS OPERATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 159, 26 June 1908, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, JUNE 26. WEALTH AND ITS OPERATIONS.

U is said of tiic American people that they are " slim " and smart," tliat they live' the strenuous life. Amongst all classes the hunt for the possession of the almighty dollar has developed into «n absorbing passion. Nowhere on the surface of the globe are trusts., syndicates, capitalistic organisation* more numerous; Hotriiere are they more upscrupti- i lolls, greedy, remorseless and cruel. If 1 by any means, corrupt or otherwise, it were possible to push through Congress a measure that uotild lead to the aggrandisation of a iiuaucial combination it would certainly be attempted no matter how obvious it might be that the jieople as a whole would sillier—thai practically they would be robbed and plundered. Money there had 'conscience. Ell'orts have been made '—the .Sherman Ami - Trii.-t AcJ is a notable instance —to curtail the limits and scope of trusts and recently President Kooscvelt has attempted by administration lo keep them

within the law and so break their power. As has been seen, the Republican Convention has resolved that- there should lie a continuation of these efforts, whieli practically involve social reforms andtli-.! maintenance of morality amongst the people. The hunger for the possession of wealth prevails in every land; it is

iinlv a question of degree, liven iu New /inland there are cities where tfie traders liave acquired a l'epututiou for "sh:«i'f>

iractice"; it is said of them that they ivill "have you" if thev can. The question is, What, powers and influences can ic brought to bear to restrain -within

reasonable limits an inordinate passion For accumulation? Is it possible by legislation to change the natural disposition ;if man?

Wealth makes further wealth, (liven n fnir start a man has but to allow his capital to be put into ordinarily good securities to lead on to fortune. The man who labours with his hands naturally desires to improve hi* position. Generally the desire of every man, capitalist or labourer, to improve his position is hehl to be laudable. What is condemnable is when this desire leads to th<» adoption of courses which are not honest. A woman may pilfer from the counter of the trader; t.hc trailer pilfer from his customers; the merchant take advantage of the trader; and the trust, over all, mercilessly bleed the whole community. The scope to plunder of the man who labours with his hands is by comparison very limited, and jjonvr ally be is not endowed with the siine keen inU'lligeiuv. lie simply wants higher wages and less to do. *if the grocer, the baker, the butcher, and the clothier have to pay increased rent* and taxes and higher wages to the assistants they employ.the working-man still so far as lie is concerned prices should remain. In N'ew Zealand to-day the coinplaint of lh-e working-man is loud that ihe cost of living has increased 20 per cent. If. because of a larger demand and higher price* in the Motherland there has been increased exportation* of beef I and mutton, the butcher has to pay higher price* »for hi* stock when he go r *s ! lo the cattle market; he has to pay higher wage* to his men: his hovse* cost 1 liim more and the co*i ui their sustenance is higher: increased rents, owing to the demand for business premise*, and increased taxes, bear upon him, so that it Incomes doubtful whether 211 per cent; increase in his prices yield* to him the .same profit that he had when prices were lower. The man who works with tlie pick and shovel evidently desires that the man who cuts up the meat in the butcher's shop, ami the man who drives the butcher's cart, and the man who provides the hay and oats for the butcher's horses, should remain content with the same old rates of pay whilst his own wages go up. Then his mind goes back to the happy old times when the periods of his unemployment wer<» frequent and prolonged, and his wages considerably less than what they are to-day. He paints the past with the colours of the rose. They w<Te really lovely, the old times. He did not require lo pay half as much in rent, nor near so much for what he now requires to live. Thy grocer has to pay higher rents as well as the working-man: he has to pay high er wages to his employees; and lie has a just claim to a fair share of whatever prosperity the country may be <*ujoying; ihese increases represent the increases the. working-man has to pay, in common with everyl>odv else, for groceries. Tlw same observation applies to boots, drap ery. and *ome other articles; for all i;he ro-t prices are regulated by the demand on the English market. Price* and rates of pay are. in fact, governed by natural law—the law of supply aim demand—and it is a vain thiug for any government to attempt to interfere with its operation.

The working-man asserts that his position is worse to-day than if was years ago. and he clamours for higher wages. He fails to realise that as his wages rise prices will rise also, and his position relatively remains the same. Again, just as in the case of the would-be millionaire, is there anything to be gained by a repre sentation of these facts? The working man has just as much right to complain as the unscrupulous speculator who has been foiled in his endeavour to swindle the State, and he seems determined to exercise his right. Being dissatisfied, the Working-man drtts into the ranks of the Socialists and lteeoiuos a revolutionary: and the condition of that man is ten times more helpless than before, for Socialism can no more etl'ectively work against the operation of economic laws than call a Government; or a Parliament. The trouble with the aggressively grasping capitalist is that he is much too " slim " in his conscience, and unite too ''smart" in his intelligence, the difficulty with I lie working-man is the deficiency in his intelligence, a dc ticienev which renders him the easy prey of the mouthing demagogue given to the positive assertion ot extravagant misstatements of fact, pandering to selfishness. anil the picturing of ideal conditions (|iiiie impossible of attainment. By undertaking fresh services for the people, bv judiciously apportioning the burden of taxation to the shoulders of the financially strongest: by anti-trust and oilier measures a State may do some thill# to keep within bounds the aspirations of those who seek to become abnormally rich: tor the working-class there is 110 course hut to cultivate intelligence: to feed that intelligence sedulously with words of truth, and to wait—patielltlv wait--for the ripening of the harvest.' In this task of feeding with truth it is open to the pros to play a great part.