TALKS WITH WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 72, 18 December 1919, Page 11

TALKS WITH WORKERS

RUNNING A BUSINESS THE DEAD PARTNER country bountifully endowed by TXta the it home of a great and v„c_,iiww terror, and. deathOne of the partners is dead. Capital uas b f„Sn d ;vili rg ori,hUn^n, ? the social question unleji Je. u* wr Sny. The hooter goes in the evening Jnd all the men stream out, to heir '„, i'inallv, the yard is lift KlOllt indsTill with only the night m duty Ho walks about amongst fho cap "-the buildings,, the <>ps, /ho Xiery, the material* the haUiinishod liner. These are Jhous Wo items of the company s capital, and tney "re generally the more important pait. o it There are, of course, items llio * ashman could not «e with Mseyeslo companv's credit,,its Dank bounces, on. Cup t« means all _ hesc tilings. The capitalists in this ««■» «* tbo persons whose names are inscribed m of them, no doubt, are »ory wealthy. Others quite poor .home perhaps, have the whole if their lies »v----mk invested in the company. rhcy hard/and to them theix capital means ll,at 3 ,V ;•< old re thev will get some of ho nut* of industry "that they hava denied themselves in their prime. Now, since capital is things and capitalists are persons, it looks at first sight •us if it would be quite easy to kill the capitalists without altccting the capi--1 In Russia the killing has quite, often been literal putting to death, ho one in this country proposes that, at any rate not openly; but many people who aim to 1» "advanced" Auikenr want p rsmide our workers to put an end t capitalists. Live they certainly•maj; own capital they may not. And this w said to.be a pay n*. l> ro^' bo " i™ labour's point of view. One partner being dead, it is assumed hat his sharo will remain to be divided between the °Tl)is theory-.has grave defects from higher points of-, view. Looking at it, however, merely as.econoimcp, wo see that it leaves out of account the .dl-iniportant truth that capital, tho thing, only does its share in tho,work'ot producing by being used up. In tho shipyard, you will see coal and steel, excellent specimens of capital, being rapidly used up under your eyes, and these must bo replaced dailv or even hourly. _ Tho fact that bricklayers aro at work pointing one of the buildings and that platelayers are •epairi'i'! the railway lino shows that the inure substantial forms of capital, ave nleo ii'ed up, and want replacing. On any given day, either by &t of J'urliiime'ut' or by a sufficient use of machiiiK-gmis. it would be possible to kill oil' the capitalists, and leave tho capital ;is it then stood; but, unless a new set of capitalists were called into existence, there would be no capital left as s'.on as tho existing stock was used up. There can be no industry without capital. So much is clear. There can bo no capital without capitalists. If lhatjikil is iot cii'itr io any worker, lot hiiu look at what is happeniug in Kussia.