BASIS OF PROSPERITY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 107, 2 November 1926, Page 9

BASIS OF PROSPERITY

MESSAGE TO LABOUR

CAPITALISM UPHELD.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, 3rd October

An accepted authority on labour and industry in tho United States, Mr. James J. Davis (Secretary of Labour, in the Coolidgo Cabinet), has delivered a striking message to the American Congress of Labour, in which he states that, under the capitalistic state, the workers have reached a degree of economic prosperity undreamed-of by the exponents of Bolshevism or Communism. His theories have a particular interest, in view of the fact that Australia is sending a commission to tho United States to study tho problem of work and wages. Mr. Davis traced tho relations of capital and labour from the time when his forefathers —he is a Welshman—worked in factories, their remuneration being sufficient commodities to keep life in them and their families. To the fact that employers and employees are partners in industry, he credits the unparalleled industrial progress of the United States and its working men.

"Any change in the direction of Socialism or Communism would," he says, "be detrimental to the interests of Labour. But this means that tho workers must admit their responsibilities to employers if America is to continue being what it has been for many decades, the land of opportunity. If American workers desire the preservation and enhancement of their wage scale, if they desire to remain an integral part of the economic life of the community, if they wish to share in all the gains of invention, and to ride to their work in automobiles, they must accept fully their share in tho responsibility for the tilings they' desire. They cannot shirk it. They cannot be indifferent to it. Nor can they, afford to listen to siren voices that sing ecstatic songs of the glories of Communism, Socialism, and the other ccono-' mic delusions. The gains of Labour , have- all come from our present econo- I mic system, and all tho gains of the future will come from the same source, j BELIEF IN PRESENT SYSTEM. "Because the world has gone through , several economic stages, a certain class of minds has come to believe that there must be another stage, and this they call Communism or Socialism. But why should we assume that another stage is inevitable? Socialists themselves believe there is a final stage, and Communists believe thero is a final stage; and, if there be a final stage, 'why may it not bo tho one which wo have reached? In my opinion, any departure from our present eeonomie system would be fraught with peril to the workers. The indications are that the time is coming when all the workers themselves will be capitalists on a small scale. That is what they would like to bo; but, if they are to achieve the desire of their hearts they must rally round the economic system that has given them their; present status in the community, and promises them even a higher status. Thus we perceive how large their responsibilities are. They themselves must learn to perceive them to the full. By being loyal to their employers and efficient in industry, they will help to create the wealth on which all their hope's depend. "The failure of Communism in Russia has been an object-lesson to millions in regard to the evil of high-sound-ing theories that have no basis in fact, and they are but vain babblings of the imagination. One atom of fact is worth whole hogsheads of purely imaginative theory. But the workers of today have more than an atom of fact to consider. They have a fact of stupendous size, an immense achievement. By capitalism it was achieved, and by capitalism it will be perpetuated. The responsibilities of the workers to this system should be evident to them, and I believe that it evermore will bo in America, unless some great calamity should befall us in the economic sphere. Of course, our present system is not absolutely perfect, or even' absolutely fair in some respects. The future is destined to witness changes that will enhance the condition of labour. SPUR OF AMBITION. "It takes ambition and initiative to get the greatest results out of life, and the greatest results in industry cannot be secured, except by inspiring ,the worker or employer with ambition and initiative. If the miner did not expect to find gold he would not go through the hardships of prospecting for it, and, if the worker or employer did not oxpect to share in all the profits of industry they would not manifest tho ambition and initiative which aro essential to the utmost success of the present system, in other words, if the employer expects labour to acknowledge its responsibilities, he must acknowledge his responsibilities to labour. "The workers used to be told what Communism would do for them. AYe know to-day that it would and could do nothing for them. Capitalism has done more for the workers than ever Marx dreamed it would be possible for Socialism to do."