THE STATE IN BUSINESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1921, Page 5

THE STATE IN BUSINESS.

[iS IT OF MOST SOCIAL ADVANTAGE? ! (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.) Tlig idea that the State can run every- : thing has a remarkable attractiveness to many people. Even persons who are jnot Socialists get caught with the glamor of the idea. When there are difficulties in the way and stiff problems to face it is an easy way out to call on the Government to perform the task. In recent times this disposition to lean on

the Government, or look to it for almost everything, has become far too acute in our British communities. It becomes ;a matter for serious consideration whether we are not thereby sapping the in- , dependence and initiative which have j been regarded for hundreds of years as i essential British characteristics. lTojday we find public newspapers discussing , ! the question of why in industry Amerj ica shows a greater volume of business i | and a greater output per man engaged ■ than is the case with England. The; question must interest us from the standpoint of whether we are as a people falling behind in the matter of per sonal enterprise, initiative and pride in our work. It does at times certainly appear that we look far too much to the State to do our business. When the farmers are in difficulties they run to the Government, but their doing so is just because they find the manufacturers, commercial men, tradesmen and others all doing the same thing. When t we want houses, for instance, the State I and municipalities are called upon to enter into the business of builders, and the party politicians get busy in competing with each other to establish the i Government as a general house building I ■ company. I The question whether in the end the : Government can do the business more economically and with better general results than‘more complete organisation of private building companies could, does not even seem to have serious consideration. It is in that field, as in several otfiers, we get. carried away with abstract ideas and sentiment, and our politicians, instead of considering the policy of semi-nationalisation from the standpoint of sound business facts, simply move to placate demands that are pressed upon them. What the total costs are of several State enterprises is very hard to determine, as apparently the whole departmental charges and taxation are not taken into full coni sideration in computing the cost of production in the same way as all inciden-

tal costs would have to be considered in connection with a private business. The test of who should do the business, in our opinion, should not be treated as one of theory or political partisanship. The question is whether private enterprise or State operation produces the best social results. That beaurocratic control is doubtful in respect to economic efficiency is now held even by Socialists, who still cry out for “Nationalisation.’' It has to- be remembered that the State works with people who know they don't stand to lose. The private capitalist (much abused individual) knows fully that he stands to lose unless he pushes his business. Tn the one case there is more or less of a machine of routine in control and in the other there is the living and driving force of personal requirement, ambition, and

creative activity. From what we have read our present opinion is that the private building construction companies of America, have far outstripped the work done by all our British State enterprises in the same field. After all the many countries that have stood for maintaining private enterprises have done so, we believe, be- i cause their people realised that the best ; social results were accruing from that i line of operation. The State machine is cumbersome, slow often when it should be quick; rigid where mobility is required, and hampered by fixed routine, which is generally inapplicable to speedily varying conditions. To lean' less on the State and spur our own flagging zeal of personal Initiative is what appears to us as most requisite at the present time.