PUBLIC OWNERSHIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 58, 9 March 1936, Page 6

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP.

Mr. Forster has overlooked -the chief objection to Socialist theories. Under any system, whether Communistic or Capitalistic, there must be a margin of profit, otherwise trade would perish. Working for wages is another illustration of the profit received, by the labourer. It is asserted by Socialists that if the means of production were collective common property the total mass of wealth would belong to the whole community, and the greater the production the greater would be the prosperity of the producers. In the view of the Labour party there would be production of commodities for exchange between peoples of different districts and different countries, and that the greater production of a commodity or the production in excess of the local demand* would be exchanged for products of a different kind of another district or nation. A system of barter is possible in a crude state of civilisation, but when society becomes more complex the barter system becomes impracticable. Tlio Socialists have not given attention to the organisation of society collectively under any conditions which involve international trade or commerce. These have a direct bearing on the daily life of everyone, and by them civilisation continues and progresses. Mr. Forster raises the question of private roads and toll gates. The county ownership of roads has been practised in Taranaki, and the public who went through the toll gates had to pay 'for the construction and use of sucli thoroughfares. The socialisation of certain industries and services may become inevitable, but it is quite plain that total socialisation would not bring us to the promised millennium. P. H. PEAKSON.