SANE COMMUNISM.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1734, 9 February 1921, Page 4

SANE COMMUNISM.

The economic fact of man's dependance upon man was neatly emphasised by Lord Inchcape in his speech at the annual meeting of the P. and O. Company. He was criticising the British effort to subsidise key industries, and claimed that there was no such thing as an industry that is complete in itself. Every industry relies upon our ministers to some other industry. 'May I," he then said, "pursue this subject one step further? Just as all industries depend upon one another, so do all individuals. There is a great deal of nonsense spoken about employer and employed. We are all employers of each other. The dustman employs the bootmaker, the farmer the baker, the bus-driver the tailor, the joiner the bricklayer; the shepherd on the moors in Scotland employs the cowherd and the milkmaid, and these, in turn, employ other people. You employ men to look after the P. and 0., and I employ others to help me. The nation employs His Majesty the King to reign over us—which he does uncommonly well—and, he in turn, engages Ministers to, assist, or sometimes, perhaps, hinder him in his task. In fact, we are already what the Communist would like us to be—a communistic people; but being also a sensible people we realise that we can only carry on by respecting law and order, maintaining the rights of the ..individual citizen, and affording protection to life and property. That is why hitherto we have been unique among' the nations of the world for the freedom and social happiness and the equality of opportunity that have obtained among us; and if we lose these precious legacies from the past we lose