CAPITAL AND LABOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26033, 22 December 1945, Page 10

CAPITAL AND LABOUR

Sir,—There is much food for thought in to-day’s world-wide events and readers’ opinions on above and kindred subjects. The one key between capital and labour is co-operation. However much they have been sharply divided or led astray from main issues, truth will always be a beacon, justice a trumpet call. Obviously they are inseparable, so the quicker we learn to work harmoniously together the greater the service rendered to our servicemen. This brings the issue sharply home to everyone. It all depends on you and me. As there have been changes in the past, so there will be in the future. We have here an untapped source of maintaining and improving our standard of life. It has a challenge also. We all have brains —let us use them.—l am, etc., Omakau. Dec. 19. M. Fisher. Sir,—Who are capitalists? A capitalist is one who owns wealth. Therefore anyone who owns his own home or who has a savings’account is a capitalist. Mr McManus seems to overlook the fact that industry is something like a threelegged stool,' and each leg Is necessary to the others, the legs of the stool being capital, labour, and management. Hence mv appeal for co-operation. This has been lacking of late and has been the cause of considerable industrial unrest. Communism, Socialism, or National Socialism, which all more or less mean the same thing, might work all right if everyone followed the Golden Rule; but with human nature as it is—so much selfishness—these " isms ” will not work. I venture to say without hesitation that no. New Zealand worker would be prepared to live under such a system if he could first see it in operation. This country, with the help of labour and management, has been built under capitalism, and the prosperity of the country and its inhabitants has been lauded from time to time. 1 It is all very well to talk of doing away with capitalism, but if you come down to essentials you will find that these other systems will not work universally and consistently over a period. Therefore, it seems to me that a humane sort of capitalism should be aimed at, and this is present in many businesses to-day. With the education of both the employer and worker in this direction a happier state of affairs can be brought about. Cooperation, not estrangement one from the other, is what is advocated and will certainly lead to a happier state of affairs in a'community where idealistic systems cannot be maintained for any length of time without regimentation and liquidation.—l am, etc., M. H. W. [This correspondence is closed.—Ed. 0.D.T.l