ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7015, 4 February 1949, Page 3

ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE

IMPORTANCE OF HONEST DAY’S WORK AS FIRST CLAIM ON ENERGIES The basis of every economic system is, was, and always will be an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay as a first claim on our energies,” said Mr Rupert Beckett, chairman of the Westminster Bank, in his annual statement.

“Unless this obligation is honoured hopes for a higher standard of living are entirely yain,” he declared. Many people in Birtain were doing a fine job in accordance with the best traditions of the British worker, he said but too frequently the improved output a man-hour was offset by the shortening of the working week. “When all due allowance is made, it seems that many workers still fail to realise the gravity of the country’s plight and how directly the outcome of the struggle depends upon their individual efforts,” he said. “Circumstances tend either to conceal or to aggravate the trouble—the shortage of labour itself, subsidised consumption and high taxation and its effect upon monetary incentives.” Mr Beckett also said: “The influence of Communism has made itself felt even among those who are now servants of the State in the nationalised industries. The dangers of such a development need no emphasis. Workers should take warning. They should not allow themselves to be deceived by propagandists of a cause which employs any deception that procures it advancement.” *