A STUDY IN ECONOMICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1917, Page 7

A STUDY IN ECONOMICS.

SERVICE VERSOS ROBBERY

(By Sidney WyndJmm Eitxlierbert). (A review by P. O'Dca, M.A., 1LL.8., Hawora). Continued.

Our author then proceeds to discuss in what manner ora- present capitalistic system can be replaced. Ho advocates the repeal of all laws on which reiationnl capital depends; 'he advocated the repeal of the law of landlord and tenant, of mortgagee and mortgagor, of the laws relating to companies; ho advocates prohibitive legislation as regards payment of interest, rent or dividends. Of course it must ibe plain to everybody that this is largely Utopian, that our present civilisation is not prepared for such radical measures, that a much longer ..growth of evolutionary process must take' place before the ordinary work-a-day world is prepared for such revolutionary ideas. fhis, indeed, our author recognises, for in a later chapter he nuts forward certain practical pronnsaSfthat Vill tend, he thinks, to proxies the state of society which he wishes to see evolved. He advocates the repudiation of.all national and municipal debts and the repeal of all laws supporting usury. Several millions are now being sent out of New Zealand, our author states, to pay interest on our public and municipal debts; after the social revolution he contends this money wouM be spent in New Zealand and would still further increase the demand for workers. The demand for workers would become so great, he thinks, and their wages rise so high, that all industries would be forced to work on a co-operative -bads. Tho present reviewer is of opinion that the author fias considered the position as though all public and municipal debts of New Zealand were owing to outsiders. It seems to him that now that so large a proportion of the public debt of New Zealand, as is represented in the war loan, h owing to the people of New Zealland, tho author's conclusions must he accordingly modified. Repudiation of debts_, without at all events the inauguration of some sort of socialistic commonwealth, would spell disaster. Many people of comparatively small means nave their all invested in Government stock of one kind or another. Our author is equally bold with his scheme for repudiation of mortgages. He takes the case of a small Taranaki farm. "His farm," he writes, "before our revolution was encumbered with several mortgafes one say to the Public Trust Office, a second to a retired farmer, and a third to a stock company. In the revolution the farmer shakes off his mortgages and his farm becomes free of debt." Similarly with the owners of large farms or sheep runs: "They arc relieved of their mortgages, but they are suddenly faced With the fact that the wages of all wokers is rising enormously. They are forced to face the situation, and admit their workers to co-partnership." All idealistic and Utopian! Our author admits that only a clear sighted and unflinching democracy could expect to carry through such a revolution, and he further admits that such a democracy at present exists nowhere in the world. But he adds "this does not mean that the r<« volution is for ever impossible." He then puts forward his practical proposals which might help tho evolutionary process. He does not place any great weight on the methods of State Socialism, considering that it is largely a cub-de-sac : it leads nowhere. Yet the proposals he submits, 'it seems to the present writer, savors very largely ef State socialistic ideas. He also discounts the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx. Marx thought that if capitalism were allowed to expand it would in the end defeat itself. "The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production which has sprung up and flourished along with and under it. Centralisation of the moans of production and socialisation of labor at last reach a point when they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. This integument is burst asunder. "The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated." State Socialism our author succinctly states has represented Will without Thought; Marxian Socialism Thought without Will. The present writer, however, cannot agree that Marxian Socialism haß been wholly barren in action.

The practical proposals put forward by our author are:—(a) Increasing the

minimum" wage of all workers. Of course ■admittedly with a rise in wages' there 1 is usually a rise in prices, although the oiio is not necessarily a sine quo non of the other. It used to be a stock examination question in economics as to which was the better for the workerhigh prices and high, wages or low prices and low wages. In the present writer's opinion thee can be no question that the ■answer U "high prices and high wages." (h) 'Establishing a maximum income. This is not so" radical as it might have appeared in pre-war times. When we find the recent delegates to the Second Division confernc advocating £SOO as the maximum income for anyone in New Zealand—advocated, too, by men who would be terrified to be dubbed as Socialistic—we need not bo surprised that our idealistic author puts forward the proposal; (c) limitation of area of land to be held by a single owner; (d) increasing the graduated land tax and so accelerating subdivision; (c) checking the growth of mortgages by prohibiting the registration of mortgages securing a greater sum than, say, half the market price of the land. Many, of course, in Taranaki—which is said to ,be one of the most heavily mortgaged districts in New Zealand—may support this, but the present reviewer cannot while existing social conditions obtain ?ee any merit in the proposal. In the&o ways our author states "the further growth of capitalism can bo to some extent retarded while the democracy is becoming educated to the decisive political action necessary to free itself." Our author rightly (has no time for revolutionary syndicalism. All strikes are suicidal; they injure the worker as much as the capitalist, and they do not destroy the relation between them. He considers, however, that Trade Unions should be maintained and strengthened. "It is invnluaible as a defender of the position already won by the workers against capitalism, and it is also invaluable as a training ground for, all the habits and virtues necessary for the successful working of co-partnership institutions. When the revolution has accomplished its purpose, trade unions will become the basis for the co-partnership communities of the future. The success of these co-partnership communities will depend to a large extent upon the .power of workers to act' together, and that power is now being created by the discipline of trade unionism." It bos been possible in this review only to intimate without elaborating the main points in this suggestive little book. With a deal of it a very large . majority will not agree, but that the author is actuated by the highest altruistic and humanitarian motives no thinking person who peruses the volume can possibly deny. Utopian and imaginative it may largely be, yet Jiow poor this dreary world would be without its idealists, its poets and its dreamers. The little volume is published at 3s and though the present writer does not know that it can he obtained in New Plymouth, it can be obtained from Mr. Boase, Hawera, or from the publishers, Abel Dykes, Ltd., Auckland. It will certainly, repay a perusal. ;