THE PHILANTHROPY OF COMPETITION.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9304, 3 January 1896, Page 2

THE PHILANTHROPY OF COMPETITION.

W. T. Stead, in the Review of Reviews. Mr Edward Atkinson of America is the exact antithesis of Mr A. J. Wilson of London, England. Mr Wilson sees everything always in the blackest and darkest of colours. He lives under a perpetually impending doom, while at every fresh step he takes he stops to listen whether an earthquake is not moving under his feet. On the other side of the Atlantic Mr Edward Atkinson goes gaily through the world, demonstrating to all men that the millennium has actually arrived if only we would open our eyes to see it. And as we are slow and dull, he takes an infinite amount of pains to prove to us that things are to all intonte and purposes immensely better than any one else but himself can sec them to be. First Retranslate tiie Goldex Rule. In the New World for September Mr Atkinson has made a record in his own peculiar line by an article the object of which is to prove that unrestricted trade competition is the most practical method by which mankind can earn , out the Golden Rule ! It i 9 really refreshing to read so audacious a paper, and. to be compelled to have to admit that, after all it is not a mere paradox, and that there is a great deal more to be said in favour of Mr Edward Atkinson's contention than most of us Socialists of the chair, to say nothing of the wilder Socialists of the street, would be fully disposed to admit. To begin with, however, Mr Atkinson requires to retranslate the Golden Rule. If he is allowed to substitute "serve" for "love" which he maintains is the correct translation, he is quite certain to prove his case down to the hilt. He says:— " If, however, regard bo given to the true meaning of the Greek word agapao, which is the word used in the original, the exact version of the Golden Rule is 'Thou sholt serve thy neighbour as thyself.' This make 3 the central presepb of Christianity absolutely and wholly consistent with the laws of trade."* Competition' CimiSTiAiaTY e» Practice. Then again he says:— "Competition is a means to an end ; this end is tho co-operation of all men for purposes of mutual benefit. One may almost affirm that there can be no effective co-opera-tion for mutual benefit except the motive be competition ; there are, in fact, a very few, and those exceptional occupations, both.in production and in distribution, from wlxich the motive force of competition can bo eliminated without the absolute certainty that their success will be temporary and their ultimate failure certain. Competition is as blind as justice. But the conclusion ia surely right in the application of either principle." He admits that a tree should be judged by its fruit 3, and ho appeals with the utmost confidence to the fruits of competition to prove that it has been a good thing. This ho thinks is especially the ca.3e in relation to the great mass of the wage-earning community; What It Has Doxe For Labour. .Competition, ho says, has been the dominating force which has presided over our social evolution in the last fifty years, and he finds that it has worked out as follows :— "(1) The hours of labour have been decreased. (2) The intensity of labour has, been alleviated. (3) Many noxious- conditions of labour have been removed. (4) The product of a given number of days or hours of labour has been greatly augmented. .(5) The cost of the labour by the - unit of product has been diminished. (6) The price -of the product to consumers has been lessened. (7) The margin of profit has been ; diminished. (8) The normal rate of interest on capital has been greatly reduced. (9) The ratio of national taxation to the individual has been greatly lowered." The net result of the improvement under all these nine heads is that the condition of the average man is immeasurably better now than it has ever been before, and it continues still to improve in the same direction. The Law of Service the Soul of Trade. This, he thinks, is nothing more than what might naturally be expected from the practical way in which the Golden Rule is embodied in commercial competition. He says:— " The world lives by the exchange of services. Progress consiste in meeting increasing wants with greater intelligence and better methods. Commerce or trade exists simply by the law of service. The fundamental principle by which it lives, moves and has its being is the motive of service. - By the power of the almighty dollar, secured in requital for one day'a honest work, he holds at his service, under the forpe of competition, the capital of all the bankers of the world, all the ships that pass over the seas, the whole railway service, the energy of the merchant and the tradesman, each competing with the other to supply his wants, at the lowest price with goods of the best quality that his intelligence will enable him to choose." Competition the Foe of Adulteration. Mr Atkinson* aa might be expected, scouts

the notion that adulteration is only a fora, of competition. He maintains that competition is the great remedy for adulteration :— " The experience of business men does not bear out the allegation that, under the force of competition, adulterated and fraudulent goods are put upon the market in considerable or increasing quantities. It does not paj*. Every manufacturer or merchant of any observation or experience in the conduct of affairs will bear witness to tho fact that, whethor the goods are low priced or high priced, the only safety in supplying the market continuously with suitable goods oi any kind is to supply the best quality that the price will permit to be offered.

Political Ecoxomv the best Philanthropy. Curiously enough, another writer in Lippincott's Magazine, who discourses upon ethics and economics, argues less forcibly, but not loss strenuously, in favour of similai conclusions to thoso at which Mr Atkinson has arrived. He says :— "Political economy is by no means a dismal science, and it does not need to have the drapery of philanthropy thrown over it lest it should be repulsive to the eyo. Under its laws, during tho last half-century, the hours of labour have been reduced, the rates of wages have been increased, and the cost of satisfying human needs, material, intellectual and social, has been lessened. Cheapness is the foundation of civilisation. High wages would nevpr have brought about cheapness, but cheapness' has brought about high wages. Egoism has accomplished what altruism longed for. Cheapened production has resulted in lower prices, larger sales, greater profits at smaller rates, more investment in productive enterprises, more demand for labour, better prices for labour* and shorter hours and more sanitary sur> roundings for labour.

♦Compare with this the following passage from a review of Robert Blatehford's Merry England in the Weekly Press, October 31st:—"Individualism doesn't appeal to the base passion of greed. It obeyitthe elementary law that " he that docs not work neither shall he eat." This is a just law. Society needs that every one of its members shall do what service ho can for the l-est; and it rewards him according lo the value of his service; sometimes adjustiis-j the reward roughly, sometimes with great aoctn-acy. , Human nature hag in it some qualities tliafc' incline it to serve society, and somo tliat inclino it to serve itself and let society go hang, or even to serve itself at society's expense. It is the former that individualism encourages ; the latter that it discourages or represses. And—but this Sir Blatchford will never see—it is under individualism that all the lino qualities he so much admires— solf-sacriflce, patriotism, courage—have been developed. And its requiring: of ever}" nian his beet is the starting point of all advance from Anarchy to the utmost height of civilisation." Our review irritated the Socialists of Chvistchurch, but we ore {.'/ad to find a Socialist, 0/ Jlr W. T, Stood* calibre adriiiUiuif that this 0110 of our points (advanced a ittlc earlier by an American) has more than half lonvinced him.—Ed. W. P. and R.