LABOR AND CAPITAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 June 1920, Page 11

LABOR AND CAPITAL.

A BANKER'S VIEWS. The following remarks on the industrial question were made by Mr. It. Beauchainp at the Bank of New Zealand meeting:— Upon our national industry our whole national life depends. A certain standard of production united to a able method of distribution arc the fif-ifc: requisites of a nation's physical and' moral well-being. We live by winning; from Nature the means of life. duction, indeed, is prerequisite to distribution, for without the former the latter is impossible. To-day these two great factors in our national life leave much to be desired. An intelligent and sincere co-operation between the two great agents of production—Labor and Capital—i; absolutely essential to an ameliorated condition of our people, and yet that kind of cooperation, not only in New Zealand but in the Old World, seems to be diminishing rather than increasing. The policy of organised Labor the world ever is to fight Capital and net to unite with jf. The world is confronted with an unparalleled economic crisis. Want and starvation are stalking through Europe, leaving widespread death, misery and suffering in their track. Unfed and unclothed millions are crying in despair for j food'and raiment. Lack of a reasonable measure of comfort is widespread owing to an insufficiency of the necessaries of life; and before..this sad spectacle the mutually destructive struggle between Labor and Capital seems to be growing more and more bitter and intense. Strikes on the shallowest pretences; ever increasing demands for shorter hours; limitation of output and a conflict growing ever more blindly acute between employers and workmen, seem to justify almost a gospel of despair regarding our social and economic future. NEED FOR PRODUCTION. Never before in the history of the world have thej needs of increased production been more clamant than to-day —never before were the two partnen, Labor and Capital, more bitterly estranged and antagonistic. I do not say that the blame—for the spectacle is a sorry commentary on our civilization—is wholly with one side or the other Capital has never sufficiently brought to its consideration the claims arid aspirations of Labor and the lamp of human sympathy. Recriminations and denunciations in the present great world crisis will serve no purpose but that of intensifying the evils of the estrangement and diminishing the hope of reconciliation. "It is better to strive for the good than to rail at the ill"—to remedy the cause than to denounce it. Two great desiderata call aloud for/ recognition: First, more sanity on the part of Labor—it should cease to be so immersed in agitation and so blind to its results; and secondly more genuine evidence of willing co-operation and concession on the part of Capital, Crusades against the soaring cost of living, profiteer-hunting, fixation of prices—these are but symptoms of the disease of a paralysed or arrested production, and the remedy lies in getting to the root of the evil instead of applying palliatives to the symptoms. If the day of radical changes in the structure of our industrial system is inevitable the sooner it is recognised the better, and the utmost human effort must be madj to find a just and permanent modus Vivendi. ! MISUNDERSTANDING. Much of the' present bitterness bstween the two great agencies must be due to misunderstanding or simply blind antagonism, and our unflinching determination should be to dispel these causes by bringing the parties as much as possible together. I do not ignore the stupendous difficulty of the problem, but it must be faced and solved or national disaster is before us. To this end the proposal that the Prime Minister should call a national industrial conference of both employers and employed is surely a step in the right direction- This would at least disclose more clearly root causes and basic differences and open up a possible path to genuine co-operation and industrial concord. In a land like this, so richly endowed by Nature with all that is necessary for solid national comfort and happiness; with a sturdy race of purely British blood and a climate that stimulates energy; it is surely deplorable that industrial antagonisms should so paralyse the hands of industry and stifle the creation of wealth that many have to face want where plenty should be their lot and comfort their heritage. /DECREASE IN PRODUCTION. That production in New Zealand has suffered grievously from the causes I have indicated no one can deny, and the following table is but eloquent proof of that conclusion:— % Annual Increase Exports Average Decrease 1914 1915-19 percent. Wool (lbs) 220,472,898 214,008,875 2.9 <le. Meat (cwt) 3,229,970 3,475,40? 7.0 in. Butter (cwt) 434,067 376,154 13.0 de. Cheese (cwt) 863,776 1,070,938 23.0 in. Tallow (cwt) 490,300 500,510 2.0 In. Hide 3 (No.) 412 822 359,293 12.0 de. Hemp (tons) 23,828 2G.49S 10.0 in. I At the close of 1919 there were ia I store 126,722,232 lbs wool and 2,107,672 cwt of meat, which, under normal conditions, would nearly all have been exported, and should therefore be credited in the above table, in which case the average for 1815-19 would, in respect to wool, be increased by over 25,000,0001b5., and would convert the apparent shrinkago into an actual increase. But, even after making all such allowances, the everage increases are not encouraging and, unless a great deal more is accomplished, the pinch of "hard times" will be felt with some severity. The values of our produchs are declining, and, when the Imperial purchasing scheme terminates, a new set of conditions is bound , to arise—a set of conditions that wiil be full of difficult problems for bankers, business men and producers, Wool, meat, tallow, hides and skins lave already receded from the high level reached since the Armistice was signed in 1918. PRICES TO BE LOWER, The statistical position in respect to most of these products makes it inevitable that prices must go lower For instance, in the case of wool, the quantity in hand is far in excess of the consumptive capacity of the availab e spindles and, even if all the spindels that were in operation prior to the war were in operation now, the weight of wool would be more than could be dealt with in a reasonable time. With the embargo placed on speculation by bankers the world over, spinners are operating only from hand to mouth and they are «af« in pmmng «»«)» a

policy, for the wool is at their call whenever they require it. Meat, too, seems likely to present serious difficulties because of the enormous quantity in store. There is not yet sufficient shipping available to clear they cold stores, and, even if transportation couli be arranged, it would not prevent price i from falling. Though some of our products may hold to something like their present values—dairy produce for instance— the general tendency is down'wards and, should the decline be anything like 25 per cent., the situation would become one of some seriousness. ~, In the six years, 1914-19—the years of war prosperity—the exports aggregated £202,590,695, or an average of £33,705,118 per annum. A drop of 25 per cent, would reduce this to £25,323, 837, and bring us down to the level of 1914, when the exports were valued at a little more than twenty-six millions. Such a shrinkage would be immediately reflected* in the Treasury Ketnms and, unless tho strictest economy is exercised in every Department of the State, increased taxation would, in that even':, seem to be unavoidable. Businesses which have been rushed upwards on the same basis, would suffer severely in the process of deflation.