CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6124, 10 March 1898, Page 1

CURRENT TOPICS.

CHBISTCHURCH : THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1898.

A companion uioremen associated to that for the federation o humanity, the whole world under on central government ha taken shape, and has for its object th complete organisation of industria humanity. Dr Nourath, Professor o Political Econonjy at the Austrian Scati College of Agriculture,, who has for yean been studying how to obviate wastefu labour disputes, has arrived at the con elusion that the only effectual means o dealing with this and allied evils, is th< adoption of the " trust " system so far as capitalists are concerned, and of federated unions in the case of the workers Curiously enough, events are developing along these lines. The cable has just, in* formed us of the formation of a Cottor Spinners' Trust in England , with a capital of five millions. Recent advices from the United States go to show that in that country there is a change in popular sentiment on the subject of " trusts " aud ," combines." Abcut a yeai' ago the prevailing cry was "Down with the trusts," and drastic legislation was proposed for that purpose; but as a better knowledge of the economic effects of these organisations has been diffused, the hostility shown towards them has abated. It is undoubted that in some cases the result of the "pooling" of interests has been, not the exploiting of the' public by the monopolist concern, but a vast saving to the people. For example, the consolidation of a number of railway com* panics in America had the effect of lowering freight rafce'3 very materially. The report of the National Board of Trade shows that the entire transportation performed by the railroads of the United States during the twelve years ended June 30, 1894, was equivalent to moving 136,799,677,822 passengers and 807,935,382,838 tons of freight one mile. Had rates averaging as high as those of 1882 been collected on this traffic the railroads would have earned 2,629,043,459 dols more than they actually received. Government statistics regarding the Standard Oil Company prove that coincident with the operations of that vast mpnopoly, the price of refined petroleum has fallen from 25 cents a gallon to a price little more than one-fourth of that amount. It is probably true that the result of amalgamation is to give capital an enhanced earning power, but when the public participate in the saving made by means of improved methods of manufacture and distribution, there is little ground for complaint. Professor Neurath is the firmly convinced that in Austrian careful organisation lies project, the remedy for most' ot the evils from which the world is suffering. If he had his way, not only employers and employed, but every section of the community, would be formed into associations. He proposes that each industry in Austria should form itself into a company or trust, under the control of a board of management, the various factories, farms and shops throughout the country being regarded merely as the branch establishments of the company. This done, all the industrial companies are to form themselves into a federation, with a central board of management on which each separate industry would be represented by a number of members proportionate to its importance. The whole collective industry of the nation would thus be under one control, namely, that of this central industrial board, which would practically take charge of all the capital in the country and decide how it should be employed and how much of it should be allotted to each industry. Under this arrangement there would be no borrowing or lending of capital between individuals; anyone who had money to put out would hand it over to the central Board,, which would invest it in whatever industry could at the given time be extended with advantage. In order to safeguard the interests of labour it is proposed that, in each industry, the workers, whether skilled or unskilled, should be formed into an association or trade union, and that all these separate unions should be united into one great federation. Each union would have | its own executive Board for the management of its own special affairs ; while the affairs of the whole federation would be managed by a Board consisting of members elected by the separate unions, all of whom would be experts in their respective callings. Thus the executive Board of the labour federation would represent every worker in the country, in precisely the same way as the central industrial Eoard would represent every capitalist. Thus they would be able to put an end once for all to strikes and other labour troubles. That such a project is realisable is made plain by the way in which the woild is rapidly . moving towards the condition described by Professor Neurath. When that condition is reached the transition to "Bellamyism," or State control of all production and distribution, will be a mere matter of form. It is, perhaps, a conci ousness that such a consummation is at hand which reconciles public opinion to the trusts and other combinations now so common. In a recent speech Lord worship Charles Beresford said some of particularly breezy things money. about the modern worship of money. " Money," he said, "was now becoming everything among us. Money would buy access to what was known as the very best society ; and let anybody come to England with enough aioney, no matter whether it had been gained honourably or disgracefully, there was no door which he could not hope to enter. In old day3 it was not so, but money was destroying our old pride and our old chivalry." In proof of this, Lord Charles went on to say that now, " when a man in the 'best society' commits a dishonourable act- indeed, a crime — society bands itself together to screen him, instead of hanging him to a tree and casting his body into a ditch." This is no doubt true, but it certainly is not a new thing for people to toady to wealth. Unfortunately, too, human nature being what it is, there is not much prospect of improvement,- in fact, white the existing social and economic conditicns

.prevail, there hardly can be an^. But social affairs, like political affairs, rjirely go in the way which is usually expected. The t energy just now expended in the pursuit ,f of wealth may take some bther direction, c conceivably, though improbably, in the s direction of learning; or there may be 0 some violent temporary interruption to ,1 moneymaking, such as a method of making f gold, which would shatter all existing forB tunes ; or there may be a cycle Of corns parative poverty, caused by prodigious ex--1 peuditures on war or social experiments; . or society may resolve everywhere to put a f limit on accumulation by progressive im--3 posts or crushing death duties. In 3 any case, all over the world, the 1 thoughtful and the good can: insist v with their whole strength upon drawing a r distinction between money that is fairly . made and money that is made unfairly. t In other words, men of Lord (Charles ! Beresford's opinions, and with a firm place ; in the world, should boycott the slaver driver, though he has made millions, and the lying jobber, though he entertains in a ! palace, aud the fraudulent financier, ■ though he has won his way to a peerage or the control of a county. ( Let character be weighed as well as' cash balances, and the evil will be mitigated even in the meantime ; and the world will be helped on towards the day of a manhood and womanhood with whose members money will count socially for nothing and character will be all in all.