CAPITALISTS AND EDUCATION.

Auckland Examiner, Volume IV, Issue 230, 18 January 1860, Page 3

CAPITALISTS AND EDUCATION.

Labor is the source of all wealth. But a’ truth of equal significance and importance is this, that most of the wealthy men of England, who now wield immense masses of capital, more or less efficiently, in the employment of labor and in the production and distribution of wealth, have risen from the working classes' during the last fifty or sixty years. No one can doubt the . truth of this statement who knows anything of the personal history of our principal merchants and manufacturers. Now, amongst capitalists; as amongst all great individuals, there exists the greatest variety of character and’conduct For the sake of illustration, let us consider two extreme cases. Take first the case of a man in the annual receipt of forty thousand pounds, which he annually expends in the manner following:—he has two or three establishments in different parts ofthe country, in each of which there is a large retinue of servants; he is continually enlarging and embellishing his mansions, purchasing costly paintings, precious gems, and other costly works of art. and adding to a library of which-- no rational use is ever made; he keeps twenty or thirty race-horses, with the necessary attendants —a hunting stud, with hounds and huntsmen; he travels, he plays deeply, he is a patron oftheatricaTs and music;: in a word, the sum of forty thousand pounds is annually spent in providing luxuries for one man, that he may be made conspicuons above bis fellow creatures. Now, although such a: course of expenditure must necessarily be attended in some respect with great advantages to all those interested in rt, it is evident that it does not contribute in the greatest possible .degree to the happiness of the community. For there are numbers-of individuals destitute of the necessaries,, conveniences,, and comforts of life; while there are great sources of wealth as yet undeveloped, it being possible to invest capital in many ways with a- reasonable prospect of realizing a profit; and at the same time an amount of wealth represented by forty thousand pounds has been consumed, and not replaced by th© labor of the consumers by an equivalent value of articles most generally desired.

Take next the case of a man who possesses four hundred thousand pounds, which sum he employs with enterprise, skill and prudence, in manufactures, in the construction of railroads, in agriculture, or in any other way, by which he realises a profit of forty thousand pounds a year. Suppose that he set apert from this annual income four thousand pounds for Ills own and family’s expenses, and that the rest is partly added to the original stock—the whole t> be again profitably employed—and partly expended, as follows, in attempting to raise the condition of the lowest class with which he may be connected. He builds cottages for Lis workmen, on a plan best calculated to promote the health of t.he inmates, by securing good drainage, ventilation, and a plentiful supply of water ; he encourages clubs instituted for

the purpose of supporting the sick, the aged, and the infirm; be originates schools for the children and for the adults; news-rooms' read-ing-rooms, and societies for discussion and conversation on scientific literary, and moral subjects. Thus disease and poverty will be immediately diminished, and the diffusion of knowledge, and the cultivation of the feelings and tastes, will ultimately lead to the formation of an army of laborers similar to himself, purely this capitalist is one of the most useful of men. Property, it is said, as its duties as well as 'its fights, and in this instanoe they are nobly performed/.Moreover the case is not imaginary. But bow great and beneficent would be the changes effected on the condition of man, were it is the rule and not the exception. However, the investigations of philosophers, as well as the results of experience, have clearly shown the injustice and inexpediency of attempting to control by force the use of capital. To interfere directly with the conduct of the rich luxurious spendthrift, would b e no . less absui dl than to interfere with that of the artisan who spends half bis weekly earnings in riotous debauchery. No t the empire of force is tottering to its ba»is, and nothing must be done to retard its fall. How, then, can a class of capitalists be created, capable of acting from the highest motives—unwilling to glorify themselves at the expense of the community—satisfied with a decent competency, if by their exertions and 1 by the instrumentality of'their honestly-acquired wealth the condition of the most degraded classes can- be ameliorated? Sueh a class will necessarily be formed in the onward course of civilization ;—the process, indeed, has already commenced. Everything can be accomplished by the mild influence of persuasion, ■by the gradual, and universal diffusion of knowledge, and by the development of the best emotions- It is not the highest welfare of the individual'coincident with tl ait cf his fellow creatures ? Is it not true that man can pity, sympathize with, and love his fellow creature? Is he not capable of enjoying the luxuries of wealth? Can he not be taught to despise the baubles of antiquity, a,nd to estimate the value of everything by the tendency to promote the general welfare? Yes/' there are truths and principals latent in the bosom of every rude and: untutored man, and there needs but opportunity and' circumstance, torouse them into activity.