CAPITALIST SYSTEM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 132, 17 March 1931, Page 6

CAPITALIST SYSTEM

MENACE OF SOCIALISM. RESISTANCE TO ATTACKS. NEED FOR COURAGE EMPHASISED. (Special to "The Guardian.") CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The question of whether the capitalist system will prove adequate to meet the needs of the world, was dealt with bv Mr H. S. E. Turner, president of the Canterbury_Chamber of Commerce,, in his address at the quarterly luncheon held yesterday. He remarked that he felt sure the system would survive because it was so well,and truly designed to meet the needs of the world. "There is," said Mr Turner, "more and more loose talk to-day about the defects of capitalism, and I regret to say that too many of us, who ought to know better, allow that talk to go unchallenged and, worse stilL allow the system to be weakened by the* introduction of socialistic measures. Despite our immediate troubles, I suppose at no time in the world's history has the general standard of living of the world been so high as it has been recently—capitalism brought that about! It is calculated that the working man today is more than four times as well off in material things as he was 70 or 80 years ago—capitalism made that possible. Yet democracy shows some willingness to pull down that system and ereot in its place a system known as Socialism in which we shall be governed by a bureaucratic tyranny, probably corrupt, jcertainly inefficient, and certainly incapable of producing goods and services sufficient to maintain anything like the present standard of living of the great, body of workers. What Socialism Means. "If Socialism meant a levelling up, all honest men would be Socialists, but our experience is enough to prove that it means a levelling down. Despite its very real defects, capitalism is the only economic system that the world has' yet evolved which can really bring about an improvement in the general standard of living. It has done much in the past and it will do more in the future, and it is likely to persist, at any rate, until there is a radical alteration in human nature. "This question of the capitalist system as against the Socialist system, is not one of politics, but of economics mixed up with the diversity of human nature, and I would like - to see a little, more of the courage of our convictions in fighting the attack on that system, which we believe is best for every useful member of the community. "Capitalism has been subjected to a regular barrage from its critics —it is time we should know what the alternative is and how much, more seriously it is open to criticism and objection than the existing system. A Widening Breach.

"One of the worst features about affaire to-day is the apparently! widening breach between; the so-called working class and the so-called employing class. I say 'so-called' because, particularly here "in New Zealand, we practically all belong to the working class. It really amounts to this—that the lower-paid workers in the community are dissatisfied with their share of the wealth produced and, misled by false economic teachings, are suffering from a sense ci irjustice. We say in, business ihat a bargain is a bad bargain unless both parties to it are reasonably satisfied. Judged by this standard, our bargain, with a large section of the wage-earn-ers, is not satisfactory. "The Socialist thinks that because men are morally equal they are, therefore, economically equal, which is quite another thing, and he longs for a state which he calls Socialism where, even if he were right and human nature were ]>erfect, we should be faced by what Leacock calls the 'great sameness which is to envelop and stifle mankind.' The solution is probably that quoted in the 'Economist's' New Year message, from which I take the following quotation :—> ' The education of all-powerful Demos in the, . relentless facts of world economics] the evolution of ' representative institutions in a manner suited' to the handling of economic problems; finally, and above all, leadership capable of promoting these essential movements.' Mistrust and Suspicion. "In the meantime, the wage-earning class regards the wage-paying class with suspicion; seems almost to deny it any honesty or decent feeling; views with mistrust practically every attempt at conciliation; and we have the spectacle which we saw in Wellington last week of organised Labour demanding to receive more than the equivalent of the total production of our country. "The mistrust and suspicion is largely a legacy from the bad old days of 50 to 100'y ears a &°> when human labour was exploited without much regard for justice. The injustice has been growing less and less as the modern industrial, system developed, but much of the mistrust has been kept alive by unsound economic teachings and, ipi New Zealand, to some extent, bv the Arbitration system, which has hardened the two parties to wages fixation into opposing factions. The recent growth of unemployment has naturally aggravated the sense of injustice. "Improved trade conditions should gradually solve the problem of unemployment and a, better understanding of economic truths will' enable the system to develop still further toward justice, and the mistrust will gradually disappear."