PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21246, 17 October 1940, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents whose letters are welcome, but for who so views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in 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. CRIME AND CRIMINALS (To the Editor.) Sir. —The views so ably expressed by your correspondent, Mr C. H. Hansen, are not only appreciated but likewise thoroughly endorsed by the writer. Here to my mind is an important point, as it has a direct bearing upon the transmission of ancestral traits. Assuming man sprung from one pair, and his length of time on this planet has been only 100,000 years, then his average rate of increase is only about one-fifth of one per cent annually. Hence, civilisation, which reflects only a few centuries, has not had time yet to erase and bury animal instincts peculiar to an environment of tooth and claw. Consequently, “ the lineage ” of many murderers may be in a direct line from an ancestor whose development in a process was that of a savage.—l am, etc., HARRY WOODRUFFE. Auckland, October 14. TO A FALSE PATRIOT (To the Editor.) Sir, —At this time I think it would be appropriate to publish the following lines by O.S. in Punch, under the title “To a False Patriot”:— He came obedient to the call, He might have shirked with hau. his mates, Who, while their comrades fight and fall, Still go to swell the football gates. And you, a patriot in your prime, You waved a flag above his head, And hoped he’d have a high old time, And slapped him on the back and «aid: “ You’ll show ’em what we British are! Give- us your hand, old pal, to shake.” And took him round from bar to bar And made him drunk—for England’s sake. That’s how you helped him. Yesterday, Clear-eyed and earnest, keen an hard, He held himself the soldier’s way— And now they’ve got him under guard.

That doesn’t hurt you; you’re all right; Your easy conscience takes no blame; But he, poor boy, with morning’s light, He eats his heart out sick with shame. What’s that to you? You understand Nothing of all his bitter pain; You have no regiment to brand, You have no uniform to stain. No vow of service to abuse, No pledge to King and country due; But he had something dear to lose, And he has lost it—thanks to you. —I am, etc., PRO PATRIA. Hamilton, October 16. MINE, THINE AND OURS (To the Editor.) Sir, —It is amusing to see Mr McManus agreeing for once with Mr Warburton, “ that it is the division of the profits from the product of labour that the fight is chiefly about, and that when co-operation is fully established all land values as we understand them today will disappear.”

In his last letter to your valuable paper Mr Warburton, evidently on the principle that discretion is the better part of valour, simply sidestepped Mr McMillan’s argument, instead of attempting to answer it, and Mr McManus is adopting the same evasive tactics. As a matter of fact, as Mr McMillan has pointed out, the science of political economy knows nothing of the vague and absolutely unscientific accountancy term “ profits.” Whatever your other correspondents may say, the’ real question at issue is: “ To whom does the product of labour rightfully belong? ” And to that question there can be only one honest and scientific answer—namely, the product rightfully belongs to the producer. But it is quite clear that neither Mr Warburton nor Mir McManus’ knows “ the difference between mine and thine,” let alone knowing “ the difference between mine, thine and ours.” As to co-operation, when fully established, causing the rental value of land to disappear, the idea is absolute moonshine, as Mr McManus would know right well if lie really understood what land values are. He might as well talk about co-operation causing the land itself to disappear; or about co-operation enabling man to live in empty space and make something out of nothing. Political economy may be defined I as the science of making a living; j and the bedrock fact of that science I is that mankind can make a living | only by labour and only on and from 1 the land, i.e., the planet earth. And | since all men have equal rights to ; make a living, it necessarily follows ! that all men have equal rights to use j the earth, and that each man is justly | entitled to the full product of his ! labours. But different parts of the earth i differ greatly in natural productiveness, and still more in regard to the community-created advantages they possess because of the presence of the community and of communityprovided facilities and services such as railways, roads, bridges, schools, colleges, gas, trams, water supplies, electric power and light, etc., etc. If your correspondents understood the economic law of rent they would know that these varying natural and social advantages are all accurately ! measured by the differing rental : values of the land, and they would | see clearly that the equal rights of I all men to make a living—their equal

rights to the use of the earth—can • be secured by requiring each man | to pay into a common fund for the ! benefit of all the rental value of 1 whatever land he is privileged to hold and use. Under normal conditions, moreover, this community-created land rent fund is ample for all community purposes, both national and local; and if it were taken for such purposes, no rates and taxes whatsoever need be levied upon individual earnings. Thus the science of political economy shows us how to secure a truly L ■ square deal "—how to secure equal ; opportunities for all in regard to •me use of the earth; how to secure to all the earnings of all and to ; each the earnings of each; how to differentiate firstly and honestly, in ■ snort, between what is mine, what is . thine and what is ours; how to secure : to me what 1 produce, to you .what you produce, and to all of us that : which all of us, as a community, produce. That is the real issue at stake, and all else is irrelevant.. I invite your i correspondents to come down to j brass tacks and cut their wisdom !. teeth on the bedrock facts and prin- j; ciples of political economy stated i above. If those principles were ap- !, plied, “ such railroad giants as Jim . Hill and Harriman ” and all their jkind would be right outside the j scheme of things.— I am, etc.. !, A. WITHY. Wellington, October 14.