Exploded Theories.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20561, 12 March 1935, Page 6

Exploded Theories.

Dear Sir, —“ Manufacturer’s ** assertioi that Marx is not applicable to present con' ditions and that his statement is borne out by Josef Stalin in his work “ Leninism.’ is quite wrong. Early in his book Stalin lays it down as a fundamental proposition that “ Leninism is the Marxism of th« period of Capitalist Imperialism.” Later he says, in speaking of reforms, “ in principk nothing is changed, but the form (of re form) suffers a modification that Mar* could not foresee, and which could only b« conceived in a land where the philosophy and policies of Marx had triumphed.” I cannot help smiling when I read the assertions that Douglas alone has found the kev to the present economic tangle. One has only to place the alleged economic works of Douglas alongside those of J. A Hobson or Karl Marx, to name only two to realise the specious and unscientific basil of the Major. Hobson and Marx do ex plain the workings of the Capitalist system and both say what, in their opinion, wil follow after. Not so Douglas. He even denies that there is a system by frequently referring to the “ so-called Capitalist svstem.” and then proceeds to take one part of it. the financial superstructure, anc treat it as the whole subject. Douglas has seen what thousands o! others have also seen, the discrepancy be tween the purchasing power in the hands of society (in the hands of the worker! really) and the mass of goods produced His A plus B theorem is designed to bridge this gap so that production and circulatior will proceed smoothly by the distributer of a “ national dividend,” which, in my view, must be taken from wages, or froir profits or its two main subsidiaries, reni and interest. Douglas can turn as he will and call these basic divisions of the vrorld i wealth by whatever names he likes, bul this is what the problem reduces itself to Either the share falling to wages has tc be increased, in which case the share fall' ing to profits falls: or the share falling tc profits rises, in which case wages must fall But. says our Douglasite, we will then produce so much that there will be no need to reduce either. In this case we simply arrive at a greater crisis than ever in view of the fact that the goods must be sold for profit in a world already glutted with unsaleable goods. Douglas and his followers simply do not appreciate the fact that the inherent coiv tradiction of Capitalism is the twofold nature of the position of the workers in production as a seller of his labour-power and a buyer of the products thereof. ( onsequently! the continual flow of surplus products must result in over-production, quite apart from any other factor. Simply put. the question is production for protit. This can only be obtained by the worker producing a surplus over and above and bevond the costs of production, which include his own wages. No surplus Product no profit: no profit, no production, lienee stagnation and unemployment. Or put it this wav:—Mountains of surplus products, but no buvers because millions of them ara unemploved or on part-time, and many of the rest bankrupt. Do Douglasites intend to confiscate the unsaleable surplus which somebody owns by giving the unemploved millions tickets to use it. Taking Douglasism as a whole and in its setting, I rather fear that when faced with the titanic national and international problems and rivalries of the day it will be completelv smothered as a serious force, and will Slip into history to take its place beside single-tax and other longsinceexplodcd theories —I am, etc., QUO \ ADIS,