SIMPLE TRUTHS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1919, Page 10

SIMPLE TRUTHS.

TALES WITH WORKERS. (London Times) I.—THE PARTNERS. K you have read Robert Louis Stevenson's stirring tale, "Kidnapped," you will remember how David Balfour and Alan Eieck when they were hiding on the mountains and had nothing to eat hut a little porridge, added to their food by groping for trout in the stream Groping for trout is catching them with your naked hand, by feeling for them very gently under the banks and between the stones, and grabbing one if you can, when you feel him With much effort David and Alan managed to catch a few small fish.

The stream trawler goes out into tlio deeps where the fish shoal by the million. It has every modern appliancesteam winches, miles of nets, storage for hundreds of tons of fish, a skilled master, and experienced hands. Alan and David could "only supply themselves with one or two small fish. A modern steam trawler can feed ft sizable town. The difference in results is enormous In one case you have individual and primitive effort, in the other the union in modern industrv of three partners, each contributing a share to the final result, but each dependent on the other two. The first two of these partners is, of course, Labor. The trawler will lie in harbor till it rots if no men go on board to get up steam and head her to the *"£ ■f n *" lds - Nowadays practical men of anxious only to obtain the best results, have learnt to regard Labor as what it is, namely, one of the partners in mdustry. It i s neither more nor less. But if Labor is to maintain its title to rank as a partner it must act as a partner. It must contribute its share to the joint concern gladlv and fullv That done, Labor is entitled to a lull share of the results achieved.

WHAT IS CAPITAL. The second partner is Capital. In the earliest days of human existence on the earth man must have caught his hsh as David and Alan caught their trout, but mingled witn the bones of later men are found the rough fishhooks which they had invented to aid them in their fishing. These fish-hooks then represented capital just as in our times the steam trawler does. So many people make the mistake of thinking that capital is another word for money Generally things are capital. The man whose patient labor made the fish-hooks was entitled to a share of the catch, and to'day the claim of Capital to rank as one of the partners in industry is just. If by some unfortunate miracle the whole of the capital ot treat Britain—its railroads, its mines, its buildings, its works, its plant its tools, its roads—were whirled .skyward in the night, we should once more be a mass of unaided men srru<™ling grrnilv with the bare gifts of nature for a miserable livelihood. Every man who saves instead of spending, who works to-clay and postpones enjovment till tomorrow, who sows in spring in hope of a harvest in autumn, adds to the available, amount of capital, adds, that is, to the? aoparatus by which Labor increases its own efficiency. The third partner is Drain. If you watch a village smithy where the blacksmith, who is in part a capitalist, works alongside his man, you mav think that so far as the smithv ; 8 'concerned it would make little difference if master were man and man master. , As the scale of industry grows, as works get larger and lar.mr. buving- ray materials and selling finished articles iii every corner_ of the globe, the need for men ef brains,_ able to direct and organise all these lines of activity, becomes obvious, We cannot go back to the methods ef our forefathers: in. attempting to do so we should, like.the Bolshevists in Russia, bring our own civilisation down about our oars, for there are a dozen mouths to feed where there was once but one, For the great operations of modern industrv the best brains of the conntrv are required. Brain ranks with Capital and Labor as a partner in industrv.

A study of the condition of this country tlime or four hundred years a<ro shows tlint wonderful progress has bee:i made. Progress is many-sided. It is moral, spiritual, political, civic. Tlirse are the finer aspects of progress, hut behind them lies economic procress, the winning of a life more full of the good thin?" of life: and this economic progress lias been due to the growth in numbers and cnpacitv of the three partners of industry. Their future denends nnon tlio recognition bv each of them of their mutual dependence and their common interest, lI.—PAYING OUR WAY. "My other piece of advice, Copper,field," said Mr.. Micawber, "you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and — in short you are for ever floored. As I am!" Charles Dickens was a great domestic novelist. He knew the people, and with a. few masterly strokes of his pen he reveals us to ourselves, for human nature does not change. Mr. Mieawber's philosophy of life is just as apt to-day and will be just as .apt in our great-grand-children's time. . "Give me," said the prophet Agnr, '•'neither poverty nor riches." Exactly. The average man does not envy the very rich: riches bring their own worries. Nor does lie .welcome poverty. Only those who have been through it know what it means to lie awake and wonder how it will be possible to make ends meet even with the exercise of the strictest economy. • Those little pairs of shoes that need renair so badlv! Mother knows. No, they -are usually happiest who are .what we enll ''comfortably off." They have enough for their needs and can put a bit by for the rainy day; it always comes.

Just the same thing applies to communities. ' England has just had its rainy day. It is raining now. One does not need to he a great economist to look round the world and see that the happiest nations are those that are paying their way, and putting a bit hy. For them the sun is shining. THE BOGEY. Many people get quite unnecessarily alarmed when they hear the words "political economy." They think it is something too difficult for ordinary mindslike the Differential Calculus or the Fourth Dimension.. As a matter of ■font jiinlftfrpl hKanam-ir ia Anln .anmmnix

Sense applied to the affairs of States. Every State buys from its neighbors, (very State sells to its neighbors. We call tlie purchases imports, and tlie sales exports, Following Mr. Micawber's line of thought the ideal for every State would seem to be equally between the two, tut what perplexes a good many people is the fact that for many years this country's imports of goods have exceeded its exports by hundreds of millions of pounds every year. The hidden explanation is that we have also sold services. Oar ships—half the world's tonnage was ours —carried goods for other countries, and those services were paid for in goods. There was another factor. There was a time when the nation exported more than it imported. By so doing it naturally made the world'its debtor, and the amount was shown by the investments this country had abroad. We built their railways and docks and sold them machinery and plant, we became partners in their enterprises, and our profit was paid in the food and raw material that the nation wanted. Another day we shall see how the. necessity of paying ns these immense sums led to our being able to get the things we wanted so.cheaply. Just now we will look at the change that the war has brought about. We are still getting far more imports than we can pay for in exports, but we cannot now account for the difference so satisfactorily as we did. The difference is being paid by the mvrrender of those investments abroad that enabled us as a nation to live partly on the interest on our savings. In other words, part of the nation's capital has gone and more is going every day. The nation's purse- is not like the widow's cruse. The. spendthrift's progress may appear, very pleasant, but economists and banker's know that it cannot last indefinitely. Already it is becoming difficnlt to get what we want. People who- have to get credit at the corner shop know the difference it makes when you cannot pay "ready" and have to ask for credit. It is exactly the same with the State. Things will be better when we start to increase production and pay for what we want. And they will not be better till then.