PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21210, 5 September 1940, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents whose letters are welcome, but for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write r; ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule is complied with, their letters will not appear. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE (To the Editor) Sir,—To my hide-bound and mossgrown mind, imbued with the exploded morality that guided mankind for so many thousands of years, the letter over the signature G. A. Crabb in Monday’s Times came as a positive shock, showing, as it does, such a failure to appreciate the principles of common human justice. It is an open advocacy of the unjust doctrine of “equal pay for unequal work”—a principle the radical injustice of which should be apparent to anyone with a sense of fair play.

In dealing with what he called “distributive justice,” Aristotle applied the principle summarised in the Latin phrase “suum cuique,” namely, “his own to each,” not “alienum mihi,” “somebody else’s to me,” which seems to be the modem equivalent of the ancient maxim.

That the principle indirectly advocated by Mr Crabb does not have the support of all Leftists is shown by the fact that in Russia workers are paid in accordance with the social value of their work, and that in New Zealand a Labour Government has appointed, for example, two experts at £ISOO and £2OOO a year respectively. These salaries must be paid by the Government because it thinks the men arc worth them.

The adoption of the rule of equal pay for unequal work would soon ruin society. I shall give Mr Crabb an historical example. The first settlement of Virginia made by Sir Walter Raleigh was a Communistic experiment. The emigrants were landed on an island, provided with food, tools, seeds, etc., and formed into a community in which all were to share equally in what was produced. IBeautiful on paper! The settlers were left for two or three years to their own devices. When "next a ship from Raleigh came to the island, most of the settlers were dead. What might have been expected occurred. Some of the settlers were all there at the sharing out, but missing at the working parties; and the workers had gone on strike. There is a bit of humai: nature for Mr Crabb to ponder over.

If Mr Crabb desires to see humanity sink into a slough of poverty and barbarism, he should get his theory generally adopted.—l am, etc.,

A. WARBURTON. Ngaruawahia, September 2.