SERVICE OR PROFITS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IX, Issue 83, 22 March 1919, Page 2

SERVICE OR PROFITS

NEW IDEALS IN INDUSTRY. ADDRESS BY MR. B. E. MURPHY. Mr. B. E. Murphy, Lecturer ou Economics, Victoria College, delivered an address recently to the members oi the Wellington Accountants’ Students’ Society, on •‘Capitalism ami ItFuture.” Mr. Murphy said that to understand what Capitalism really was, certain preliminary ideas must bo graspedWealth tie defined as being whatever one desired and was willing tu wake an effective demand for : while capital was wealth which was set aside to bo used in the production of further wealth, instead of being immediately consumed. Without capital, society could nut exist j and without the modern capitalist and the inducement of interest it was not easy to see where we would get our capital supplies. Capitalism ho defined as being the present method of using the capita' in industry : that was private ownership of the means of production in tho hands of the employing class, who produced primarily for the purpose of making profit, which <n the iong run could only be done if they furnished a certain modicum of social service. Jt was very- much to be desired that the development < f industry should show a continual increase of the desire to offer service. It would not be too much to say that if service were put before profit many of our problems would disappear. Capitalism possessed flic advantage that it conducted production with a minimum of interference by the. State, which was al wavs to ho desired, and that it resulted probably in a greater volume of commodities and mtiihs tluin could be produced under any different system. On the other hand, it had certainly led to a most uneven distriliutioti <>t nealt li. and consequently to much iriiohms expenditure, with a diversion of labour and capital to those ends, instead oi serving the real needs of tlie people. Much of tho misery ol the world was caused through faulty distribution ol wealth. 'Die speaker then proceeded to detail tlio historical, development ol capital. Capitalism, lie continued, postulated the system ot private properly and flee competition, and both these had Ol lato vears been subjectiHl to fairly serious attack. Tho Socialists especially had led an attack on the institution of private property, holding that it tended to divide society into a large pauperised proletariat on the one hand, and a Jew plutocrats on the other. 1 hey scemeil, however, to have overlixiked through the operation of the .ioiut-sloei; principle that the ownership of capital was diffusing, and not becoming more i imeentrated ; and they had not to date produced any satisfactory means oi regulating values iti distribution. It 'mini be said that recently collectivist Socialism had been a failure, and was probably not now endorsed by any economist oi repute in tho work). A more insiilnitls attack, boweve.. liml been directed at capitalism from witliiri. being directed chiefly against the principle of tree competition. It vas pointed out That, competition was ■•earcely ever I roe: that it was sometimes eloggerl hy mein luck, by fraud, by influence, and personal "pulls. ' and by inheritanee, while it tended to culminate 111 monopoly. Chert' was no donlit considerable' loree in these conclusions. The lecturer said be looked for no improvement by root and branch destruction ot present, institutions, and considered that the extreme Socialist programme, it carried out. would result in disaster to ail concerned. Root ami branch changes were not possible in so-iety. Society evolved and grew, without sudden changes. It would not be too much 10 say that more vigorous public opinion tn regard to the duties of consumers and pnxlueeis ot wealth would solve a great many 01 our existing* problems ; mid there could be no doubt that one of the results of tlio war would be 10 secure some levelling of wealth by taxation oi the superwealthy. who would not h<> able to avoid it by trausierring it to another countri, since all countries would probably be in mtieb the same position. The mam line 01 improvement he looked tor wa.the moralising of the existing competition system, and the increasing tenditiiy to prefer welfare to wealth: and an increasing desire in the Inisine-s world to place service before profit. A Imariy vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Murphy for bis addies.-.