CO-OPERATION AND INDUSTRY

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 1, 3 January 1923, Page 6

CO-OPERATION AND INDUSTRY

'To Make the World a Better Place" By ALEXANDER SCOTT When we speak of the industries of our country we mseiau those su'oduciive and commercial activities which are - soc'lal and not individual in «cope. Industry in this sense is directly the result of the, collective efforts of all the workers who per-. form a useful and necessary service in connection with, the making or operating oi! the industrial machine, so-called. But under the present system of control the operators of the "'iidustrial machine are not -:he benenciari.es but the slaves —tfle victims—of their Industry. The real beneficiaries are not operators at all, but speculative capitalists—gambles, in other words. Under the present arrangement thtse gamblers are endowed wUh the ownership of the industrial machine, made and operated, be it noted, by the workers. And when the requirements of the workers and tfceir system are met they can iand rio stop ihe machine, irrespective of whether the needs of. the- operators and the general community are fulfilled, or not. And, indeed, tho system leaves them no other choice: it is either that or bankruptcy for them, and their system.

Obv'ously, such a system is unfair. But worse th&n that, it is stupid.- It acts as a 'hindrance to tlie proper operation, of the industrial machine, which, freed from the arreatation of the system, would be efficVnUy operating to its full capacity for the benefit of tho whole community. Under the system the machine frequently stops, ias everyone knows, jusi when it is most -need'cd, land, in! consje-. quence, ihe willing but unemployed operators starve. It .is not that the machine itself breaks down, but simply that the nia'n switch, so to speak, is left in tho hands of the manipulator of the system, the capitalist speculator and profiteer-. And in passing let it be said -thiit the makers and operators of industry themselv.es by their political votes have up till now voluntarily given over control of the switch to the gambler and his thus enslaving ahem&elvfcs and offering their strength and skill, aye, their very lives and the health and happiness of their women and children as a basis for lottery.

Now, Co-operation '/s ilio exact opposite of the system we have criticised, inasmuch as it implies a condition of industry under which the operators of industry themselves shall be th,e collective masters and beneficiaries of industry, the sole purpose of which must be the welfare of the (vhole community and the advancemerit and betterment of the world.

The Co-operath-,3 movement of Great Britain, with its 4,000,000 members (representing about 20,000,000 iiken. women and children) its hundreds of mills and factories, its thousands upon' thousands of shops and warehouses, i:s huge distributing, huying and importing organisation, its newspapers and other means of ■publicity, its insurance and banking institutions,' and all its great resources is already by evolutionary stages and voluntary methods building up the new system which sooner or later must prevail the world over, when man will no longer live simply in order that ho may work, but will work in order that he may truly live; when, to auote Charles Dickons:

"Men, delayed no more by stumbling blocks of their own making, which are but specks of dust upon the path between them and eternity, would then apply themselves, liko creatures of one common origin, owing owe duty to the father of one family, and tending to one common end. to make the- world a better place."