capital; (2) capitalists; and (3) tlie relation between them.
Take a big works, say a shipyard on tho Clyde, belonging to a limited company. Tlie hooter goes in tho evening and all tlie men stream out to their homes. Finally, tho yard is loft silent and still, with only tho nightwatchman on duty. Ho walks about amongst the capital—tho buildings, tho slips, tho machinery, tho raw materials, tlio halffinished linor. These are tho visible items of tho company’s capital, and they aro generally the moro important part of it. There arc, of course, items the watchman could not see with his eyes—tho company’s credit, its bank balances, tho book debts, tho patent riglus, and so on. Capital means all these tilings. Tho capitalists in this case aro tho persons whose names are inscribed in
tho share-register of tho company. Some of them, no doubt, are very y.vakhy. Olliers may be quite poor. Sume, perhaps, have tho whole of their pie's savings invested in tho company. They have worked hard, and to them their capital means that in their old ago they will get some of tho fruits of j industry that they have denied themselves in their prime. Kow, since capital is things and capitalists aro persons, it looks at first ■Sight as if ir would bo quite easy to ‘•kill” the capitalists without affecting tl>9 capital. In Russia the killing has quite often been _ litoral putting to death. Xo one in this country proposes that, at any rate not openly; but many people who claim to bo “advanced” thinkers want to persuade our workers to put an end to capitalists. -Live they certainly mav: own capital they may not.. And this is said to be ft paying proposition from Labour’s point of view. One partner being dead, it is assumed that his share will remap! to hi,' divided between tho others. /This theory has grave defects from higher points of view. Looking at it, however, merely ns economics, we see that it leaves out of account the allimpoitant truth that capital, tho thing, only does it share in the work of producing by being used up. In the shipyard you will see coat and steel, excellent specimens of capital, being rapidly used no under your eyes, and these must be replaced daily or even hourly. Tho fact that bricklayers arc at work pointing ono of the buildings and that platelayers are repairing tho railway line shows that tho nice substantial forms of capital are also used up, and' want replacing. On any given day, cither by Act of Parliament or by a sufficient nso of machine-guns, it would bo possible to kill off tho capitalists, and leave tho capital as it thou stood; but, unless a now set of capitalists was called into existence, there would ho no capital left as soon as the'existing stock was' used up. There can be no industry without capital, So much is clear. There can he no capital without capitalists. If that also is not clear to any worker, let him look at what ishapponing in Russia. 1
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Bibliographic details
Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16607, 3 December 1919, Page 5
Word Count
647Page 5 Advertisements Column 5 Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16607, 3 December 1919, Page 5
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