WAGES AND PROFITS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 230, 22 June 1908, Page 6

WAGES AND PROFITS.

When we commented last week upon the interesting speech of Dii. Findlay, wo noted that, while it went no way towards solving those industrial difficulties which call for immediate treatment, it nevertheless contained much that was valuable. It is a pleasure to turn now to one .really valuable portion of the speech, and to compliment the Attorney-General on the industry that he expended in preparing it. Wo refer to the figures which he brought forward to show how baseless is the wild outcry of those noisy and thoughtless people who declaim so bitterly? against " capitalism " in this country. The sensible working man pays little heed •to the greater part of what .the orator of tin Queen's Statue has to say, but a very large section of the workers really believe that they would bo infinitely better off if they* received what they call " the full fruii of their labour." Dr. Findlay's figures should dispel this idle dream. During the .year 1906 the total 'earnings of the 290,272 workers of New Zealand amounted in the aggregate to £24,211,100. If a benevolent Arbitration Court decreed an all-round increase of one shilling per day, the wages bill would be increased by £4,528,243; a florin increase would require the. employers to pay " only £9,056,480 per annum " more than they have been paying. Perhaps the discontented agitator has the idea that this money can be taken from the hated capitalist without materially decreasing his profits; but what are the facts'! Figures supplied by the Commissioner of Taxes show that " of all the shopkeepers, traders, manufacturers, factory owners, or other business men or firms, only 4827 .in New Zealand make over £300 a year." Only 884 companies and only 174 nonresident traders made profits at all. "The profits earned, by this fortunate 5885 in excess of the exemption whero allowed is £7,775,579 per annum." There are, however, always some companies running at a loss. The Commissioner of Taxes estimates that the total losses of thi more unlucky of tho industrial enterprises employing, labour amount to £2,000,000. When this sum, and a further sum of £2,000,000, which is equal to 5 per cent. ■ interest on the £40,000,000 capital invested to produce the £7,775,579 profits, arc deducted from those profits, it will be seen that " Capital " his " pocketed " less than £4,000,000. ■ A rise of one shilling a day in ihe wages of all workers would swallow up ovory penny of this balance, and a good deal more.

These figures by 'no means establish that there arc no ills awaiting a cure in our industrial system, or that those ills aro incurablo. ' They do establish, however, and in tho most decisive fashion, the absurdity of the doctrine that everything will be set right by straightway adding something to everybody's wages. There is a story of a young officer, who, having witnessed a "conjuror's trick of cutting a hat to pieces and afterwards restoring it uninjured to its owner, borrowed a hat, cut it into shreds, and passed them up to the conjuror with the request that he should reconstruct the article. "It is for you to re-unite the pieces," he said; " I only do the cutting-up part." That young man's method was very like tho method of the agitator who clamours for financial concessions without in the least indicating how the thing is to' be done. He can only do the cutting-up part. Although, as we havo said, Dr. Findlay's spccch was remarkably unhelpful where help is urgently required, and Although it is by no means necessary —it is, indeed, in the highest degree undesirable—that the Government should immediately cmbark upon the very complicated and questionable experiment of State-regulated "needs" and "exertion" wages, yet the figures we have quoted should do good service in persuading the workers that the problems of industry are not to be settled by a stroke of the pen or by a wild assault on some vague monster named "Capital."