WEALTH AND POVERTY.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4610, 13 October 1883, Page 2

WEALTH AND POVERTY.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sib.—The one thing needful consequent upon the immaculate conception and virgin birth of human mind is cultivation, for thereby it may be made glorious and immortal. Wealth is a power over the labour of the poor, but knowledge is a greater power that will give freedom to all men. Wisdom and virtue are better than all the gold in the world, for the understanding cultivated by knowledge, and exercised by virtue, will subordinate all powers and things to ihe equal and impartial good of ail mankind. By seeking to obtain all possible knowledge with - the benevolent desire of extending it amongst the whole human race, by recognising in every man a brother, who has need of every other man's good will and assistance, the true Eleusis will be realised. These lofty purposes are manifested + by the writer of " Current events," in boldly setting forth the principle that" the Government must become the circulating -

medium of commercial exchange in the

state." These few words imply so vast a revolution as to involve an entire change of the present commercial system. Neither bankers, merchants, shop-keeper, or any

of the employers of labour, as they are now conditioned, could then exist, for the simple but satisfactory reason, that man would be emancipated from the painful' and humiliating necessity of begging from his brother man " leave to toil"; rthe power over labour now so injuriously exercised by those classes being abolished ' by the exchange market, which would be freely open to each and all. The extinction of these classes, is but alogical consequence of the abolition of private interest in land, for many of them are landlords who receive portions of the produce of estates, which mostly consist of life's necessities, and the trading in which invests them;; with power over the labor of ihe pro* ducers. Virtually they receive produce tion at lower prices than its value^ and resell it at higher prices, disguised by manufacture or currency, to its very producers. Under the proposed 'system of exchange all great public works, though' involving the expenditure of hundreds of millions, could be executed, and these constantly increasing under* takings would pass down from generation to generation, heightening the national beauty and adorning the earth. The industry of posterity need not be, as it now is, heavily mortgaged. Not a fraction would be required from coming generations. All the great enterprises of the nation being carried out under government contracts by associations or companies, and receiving payments as required by state issue. The only limit to the time or quantity of labor, would be man's own inclination, and just in proportion to his application and industry would be his reward and increase of wealth; thus

miners could prospect, explore and w;ork the land for mineral, wherever it would be remunerative to do so, the produce forming the basis of the labours of the craftsmen in any other branch incidental to that industry, thereby setting,in motioa the smelters, moulders, gravers, gineers. and. the other thousand .and one sections of that department of production. The timber trade would be greatly stimulated, necessitating the planting and growing of great forests of trees which

would require armies of bushmen to-fell and prepare for the mill owners to saw into requisite dimensions. In all branches of industry great expansion would be consequent on the adoption of " Observer of current events' " system of exchange. ■ Here and previously it has been shown that the present arrangement of gold and silver currency, as a medium of effecting exchange, is not only defective, but

positively injurioas, to the producers of wealth, and it requires but little exercise of common sense to see that if a medium of exchange should invariably represent actual value of the thing exchanged, the value must be based, or calculated on

average of time in production. Time must always be the criterion in estimating value. Ah trade? and all professions, whether estimating day work or piece work calculate by time. On the basis of time a scientific table of averages can ba drawn, and a medium of exchange established that would fix value—its medium always commanding an equivalent if values are represented oa a uniform and equitable basis. Time is uniform, bat gold and silver at different times command different values, and having a purchasing power in. addition to a representative function, are used for debasing labor. Crod* help the poor to understand their true relationship to wealth, so that in the coming struggle they may seek to realise the great individuality condition predicted by the Sublime Teacher, when "every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and no \ man to make him afraid." Then—but not till tljen—will we say, consummation est !«—» I am, &c, Rbfoembb.