The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1930. ENLIGHTENED CAPITALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 307, 29 December 1930, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1930. ENLIGHTENED CAPITALISM.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can do.

The death in middle age of Lord Melchett, better known to the Avorld as Sir Alfred Mond, is a severe loss to the British Empire. He was a leader in the movement on which so much depends for peace and goodwill in industry, and a firm believer in the industrial development of the Empire. His remarkable business ability, his almost unrivalled experience in great industrial organisation, and his imagination, made him an exceptionally valuable leader in both these directions.

Lord Melchett' was prominent in politics for many years, and attained Ministerial rank, but his political work, valuable though it was, could not be compared in importance with what he did to compose differences between Capital aiyi Labour and to spread the ideal of partnership as opposed to conflict. Indeed, his labours may prove epoch-making. It was he who, in' 1928, organised the "Mond Conference," at which problems relating to industrial reorganisation and industrial relations were discussed by a group of and the General Council of the Trades Unions. That Conference, which may prove to have marked a turning-point in industrial history, reported in favour of the. establishment of a National Industrial Council, whose functions would be to further Britain's industrial progress by consultation, conciliation "and research. It was a resounding victory for peace in industry, and the idea of "Mondism," as this-movement was called, was naturally anathema to the extremists. Lord Melchett argued that new occasions taught new duties, and that in order to survive industry must explore the paths of peace and co-operation. In his own chemical industry he approached the problem from what he called five main points—"personal contact, improved status, increased security, copartnership and information." The conduct of modern industry he declared to be "not merely a matter of quick gains, profits and dividends," but "a national service with national responsibilities." How, he asked, could that service be given if there were "two warring camps continually obstructing and dissipating energy." Probably no man of his time did so much to educate Capitalism in its responsibilities and to bring Capital and Labour together in a practical frame of mind. His death is a great loss to the cause of peaceful progress, but his work and his example remain.,