STATE SOCIALISM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18057, 6 April 1933, Page 6

STATE SOCIALISM

DEFINITE MENACE NOTED CALL FOR A SURVEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE REVIEW State socialisation was strongly condemned by Mr. J. P. Luke at the annual meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce as a. definite menace to the ultimate emergence of the Dominion into nationhood. The fetters of departmental control should be removed by any and every means, he said. State departments could not be maintained v/hicb tinued to act as a drain upon the coffers of iuclustry and commerce. “It is with the object of surveying our position iu relation to the growth of State services that 1 would emphasise my belief that the greatest contribution to woild rehabilitation that an individual country can make is to so organise its internal economy as will provide avenues of employment for the total available ‘man hours,’ ’’ said Mr. Luke. “We are told by very earnest economists that all that is wrong is the method of distribution of the products of industry, and we immediately proceed to build another story on the already topheavy structure of departmental control.

“This land of ours has been in the grip of the unskilled man for many years. We have through our legislative enactments elevated him to a pedestal, and we are constantly Hauding our wonderful system of education which has been a potent factor in creating a host of people peculiarly unfitted to apply the advantages which should be a consequence of higher education." UNEARNED STANDARD OF COMFORT “In the field of industry and commerce and in Government departments we have supported and provided high remunera tious for the less skilled worker to the disadvantage of the skilled man and the detriment of real progress,” continued the president. “For at least 30 years we have upheld a system of payments in which not only are they not m any way related to the realisable value of products, but the time lag between fluctuations in prices and wage adjustment is far too great. “It is no use politicians or trade union officials endeavoring to paint a picture of industrial employment demoralisation iu this country. “The whole trend of legislation since the inception of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act has been directed to fostering a standard of comfort which we have never earned and are not strictly entitled to. “The idea in the minds of the originators of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act was quite sound, and no doubt it would have worked admirably but for the fact that it provided a happy hunting ground for the man with the bureaucratic mind. Designed to prevent the injustices and cruelties of the factory system with which the promoters were familiar in England, the measure has killed progressive and balanced industrial development. The patient has been treated for a disorder which did not exist. We never have had, and in this enlightened age never can reproduce.the evils of the old system that once existed in England.

“The determination of conditions of employment was almost entirely removed from tho control exercised in the administration of the Factories Act. It was never contemplated that any and every class of employee should come under the wing of an Act which sVas designed to make the position of the skilled artisan of some value in the development of a new land.

HIGH PROPERTY VALUES “T lie wliule edifice was seized by Die exponents oi State control ot all endeavor, unu political inanimations have Kept uio door uarred and boned to any real ivtorm,” proceeded Mr. nuke. ''We film tliat all our property values are fictitiously htgu. v* ny: ilie demand lor something for nothing inherent, m all industrial awards torceu the provision of Government lending on laud and properties, wherein all the elements of speculation were ailuweu iree play, harms and urban properties have been used as the vehicle to enhance the speculators profits, and to-day the farmer and urban worker alike cannot meet me calls on their loans. “Of course the Government is blamed. I don’t see eye to eye with the Prime Minister in some things, but be has my very sincere sympathy in his endeavors co disentangle a Saein which has been so painstakingly mixed up in a succession of Acts, Urders-in-Couucil, etc., all designed over a long period, to preveut the' creators of national wealth from functioning.

"Uunug the past year our national revenue has declined h 5 per cent., while governmental expenditure has increased over last year. “The Budget calls are as insistent hs ever, whilst legislative measures prevent the creation of profits with which to meet the demands.

“One realises that political adjustments may be slow, but there are many measures which can and must be repealed at onco if we are to emerge from the slough in which we are floundering. “Without a margin between costs and prices industry must die for want of sustenance; and already our costs even in our exportable products are too high: “We can best contribute to world reconstruction by rebuilding our own economic system,” Mr. Luke concluded, “by keepiiig in the focus of our vision the fact that the greatest happiness and, therefore, tho greatest stability will be attained by that country which most usefully employs its populace in the provision within its own borders, of those things which are necessary and desirable.

“The removal of restrictive legislative measures is the first step necessary in national reconstruction.”