Socialism.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 4, Issue 21, 17 March 1893, Page 3

Socialism.

Under the above heading the following rather novel letter appears in last Saturday’s Evening Post I “Sib, --As a Socialist I would like to make a few remarks in reply to a letter by Mr Grove, which appeared in the Supplement to the Evening Post of 25th February. In it he states that the richer a man becomes by his own labour or talents the richer the community become. He makes a mistake here. No man becomes rich by .his own labour. He may save a little money—and he is very lucky if he can save any—and with it he may go into business of some sort. If he becomes a manufacturer he will grow rich on the labour of his employes; if a shopkeeper, he may grow rich on his customers, by adding from 80 to 40 per cent, to the price of the goods he sells, thereby reducing the purchasing power of his customers. As to talents, a man may have a talent for lending money at from 6 to 100 P er cent, interest, and seizing the borrower S property if he cannot pay up. Ho may have a talent for selling goods on the time payment system, ahd if his customer should fail in his pay: ments—though he had paid 7-Bths of the price—seizing the goods ; nnd getting rich that way. . He might have a talent for keeping a brewery Or several hotels, and grow rich by selling damnation. He might have a talent for book-making on the race-course, and grow rich by encouraging gambling. Or he may be a respectable house-owner, who grew rich by letting his houses at a high rent to thieves and prostitutes. You see there are lots of ways for growing rich, but working for wages is not one of them. I have known lawyers to grow rich by getting the guilty acquitted, thereby defeating the ends of justice; and of Party newspapers grow rich by pelting mud at the other side. We are to understand that those men enrich the community. Considering that all of them could be done without, I fail to see how the community is enriched.. My own opinion is that they rob the workers of their earnings. In a Socialistic State there would be none of them. If Mr Grove wants to become a social reformer, he had better become a Socialist, as the Single-tax is not sufficient. I might say here that Henry George defends interest.— T. Judge.”