The Dominion. THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1909. "RIGHT AWAY TO UTOPIA!"

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 566, 22 July 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1909. "RIGHT AWAY TO UTOPIA!"

Our readers will agree with us that that portion of Dr. Findlay's entertaining lecture in Dunedin last night which dealt with "the aims of government" is well worth' the column of space that we allot it to-day. It is pleasant, in these days of multitudinous publishing, to have a literary politician bovrilise for us now and then those dear old friends of our' youth,, Marx's Kapital and the rhetorical chapters of Henry George's Progress and Poverty, and to spice tho extract with a flavour of' Mr. LloydGeorge's speeches in the Budget debates. Dr. Findlay has of course done a. little more than this; as, we shall see, 'he has thrown in some pleasant little notions of his own. it is'nothing new that tho Attorney-Generalis a Socialist: he strove hard in 1907 to, break the fact gently to us.' Wliatis'riew, and interesting, is that he no longer considers it necessary to disguise tho fact that for all practical purposes ho is at one with, say, -that pleasant young momber of the House- of Commons, Mr. Victor Grayson. A. man less doft in expressing himself might have smothered his /ideas under his style. But Dr. Findlay ;s. able to stato bis position quite plainly as well as very .'gracefully _and very-." read:,! ably. But as' he stands, so to speak, on the steps of\the:'buß,which..is shortly to -start., "right away to Utopia,'. , 'he is a •little vague as to the. route. Let us examine it .first. \. : ' : .'■". . V. ;.;';,..'

The great-thing is : to get:rid of waste! We are' all agreed upon that, and ; wo need not dwell on the pojnt, as ;Dn.* E'indlat is on. the' whole' • refreshingly sensible, if not quite in hib element, in; his discussion of the different forms of. waste.' iThe. first practical proposal that we, meet in his speech \seems to i be. the repeal , of the Arbitration Act.' That, at any rate, it seems to us, is the only' thing that he can reasonably mean when he says, that the aim of government, must' be to reduce the "waste ,"in tho'■:• physical,, moral, and\technical character", of' the workers.; For the main result.of the: Act has been • to.render extreme -efficiency a ; thing that the worker ,has' nothing; to /gain by; compassing. • The; "incompetent employer"—one of Mr. D.', M'Laren's choicest discoveries, we believe—is. also ■to be dealt with. . "The Government," we are told, "cannot impose antecedent tests of qualification."; That is; very unfpr■tunato, but it is early to give up all hope of-seeing the; Government deal ; boldly with the matter. We may yet live to see the happy day when you must; pass .an examination before you may open aehop. 1 Discussing what he calls "the.waste :of 'non-use,' " •Dβ. Fi'nduy went on to say that "it should'be the steady aim of. government to make capital available to those without'it who;- and were competent, to productively-use it." The context shows that ho Was referring here to capital for investmenKotheWise'than in Jand, so that presumably we may look' forward to tho -early : appearanc6i of aji Advances to Shopkeepersi'arid Manufacturers. Billi-An.other'of-,-the, "aims, of: 'government" is stated to be the checking -,bf "wasto on articles ;of ■ consumption which tended to impair a man's; fitness industrially, mentally,' and morally." This. looks like ; an appeal to the Prohibition Party or to the Anti-Tobacco League. The only.point in doubt is,the length to which the"Governmentintends td''go,';and it is,much ;to be'feared.that:the anxiety that this statement will 'cause: in : some quarters will only be partially, allayed by the "healthful atnusoracnt or occupation" which the v Government appears to contemplate furnishing .for the ' -public. As to the waste which is simple, extravagance, tho Attorney-General foreshadows something which will pro'mote "the growth,and. control/of social sentiment against, wasteful extravagance.',' ,If this means anything, it means, we hope, a 'severe censorship of Sib Joseph Ward's exuberantly optimistic speeches. v , • ~' 'There is not much be said'of : Dr. Findlay's general j observation on what he calls "the distribution of wealth.". It is enough , to say. that he deals with the subject quite as readably as Kakl Makx, and almost as lucidly as 1 Mb. A. ; W. 1 Hoqq/.He admits that to bring about a "fairer; distribution of wealth" will'be ! "a difficult task, .'fraught with >pitfalls and perils," but he points: • out that i"thero is no reason why it should not be attempted." Of course not. It would be a repudiation of, all the principles of Socialism to hold otherwise than that tho greater the:perils and pitfalls, the stronger- the reason for risking; them. But nothingVimmediate is, promised excepting a new system of death duties, 1 of which he furnished particulars. What has determined; the .Government in this matter has been the consideration-that "the best practicable means in the hands of the State to reduce wasteful extravagance is to reserve,, in the shape of death duties, a considerable portion of the wealth';so wasted. I ' l We are to- assume that the inheritances which go into land and industry," and,; are thiis wasted! are to be levied upon in- order that the money may be wisely spent .by our notoriously thrifty and, careful., Government. A glance at the statistics of the public debt and the public expenditure will enable anyone to make .up his mind as to this portion of the .programme.. Doubt may arise as to the wisdom of the programme from' the suspicion that the State which is to' do it all is not a separate and distinct .entity like the sun 1 or moon, but merely Jones, Smith, and Robinson, ;and the rest of us. Dβ. Findlay. appears to have no suspicions on the point himself. He says that the State should bo regarded as"a parent." We know what he mean's. . He means that the community must bo the parent. In other words, what he wants is simply Collectivism as fast ae he can got it.,