STATE INDUSTRIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 28 March 1913, Page 5

STATE INDUSTRIES.

HOW THEY AFFECT INDIVIDUAL * PROGRESS. In the ranks of industrialism the baton,of the field marshal is at the bottom of every recruit's knapsack, although not every one Has the wit to find: it (says A. Maurice Low in the North American Review). But it ie there, to decent living, to the exercise of man's reasoning faculties. That is the reward to which every appren- | tice may aspire; but what would be reward if the State took over all HRndustry. Assuming an absolutely /[honest oivil service where there is no favouritism where influence counts for naught and merit is the sole test' — " an ideal state of affairs not impossible of realisation, but piactically almost « 0 —the faithful, diligent, and intelligent government servant would slowly . gain bis promotion and might hope, after long years of service, to reach the highest rung of the ladder—-an agency or the management of an important bakery, let us say. But he would .always remain a hired man, a servant of the . State. Socialism - would mean implanting upon western the debasing and injurious ' effects of the caste system of the East, A man would l>e born a baker and die a baker: in all probability the son would follow in the footsteps of the father, and there would be a ens to of bakers in America iust a.,« there is n -oaste of offal collectors in Tndn'a.