HOW TO USE THE CAPITALIST WITHOUT ABUSING HIM.

Waikato Times, Volume XLII, Issue 3391, 24 March 1894, Page 5

HOW TO USE THE CAPITALIST WITHOUT ABUSING HIM.

"Tjik Psychology of Labour and Capital," is the somewhat abstruse titleiofea •> articljjin feor«tl3|&r II ingly |(rebu|es ;'• the 5J Socialist ifforf< describing the capitalist-as afleask of prey, and urges that the'two phases of human nature—the phase of labourer and capitalist-are two and inconvertible. Mr Wallace finds three main distinctions between thobom capitalist and the labourer—classes and types which of course often overlap:—(l) The capitalist is a being of vaster cupidity than the labourer... he wants to possess all he sees, and his desires are really bounded by the resources of the planet. On the .essentially a|laboure|i has npf thV. guide a plSgh/makeJan paint a picture, impersonate a character, write a poem. That is about all he is fit for. The capitalist aims to annex, the labourer to transfigure, Nature. A second distinction between the ttvulies in the capitalist's using | his brother men as his tools, This is a remarkable faculty, possessed in perfection by comparatively few. -for jo sayjjtoj'a with Ihiiriself, firj ever| 'anthßpological'characterisii'c.i ''lt J*thelfrightgtKing t|at ifffo shoulddwejfin hoyels, but that* I thalJybui should wear fustian and corduroy, and live on herrings and potatoes, but that I should- be .clothed .in purple and fine linen )and ? fire sumptuously every- JdayV' I Once ai keen annexionist basvfacedr Mi position from this pbmToltilw, htf

falters, he will never do much good as a capitalist. The genuinelabourer, onihe .otherihan<kbe he ..poet or,p|oughman|iß ( noi equal to fethis, atfdhgncSfeiDfifmsa labourer >iih|u|i 1 1 f '-Thelhira difference isl'perliaps, the most striking. The capitalist "must have, on a greater or smaller scale, capacity for organisation, ability to combine men, materials, and opportunities into a unity which, as an adaptation of means to end, he can handle as an instrument for raking in towards himself the largest of possession that is meanwhile, %m ku Vthis direction'»he.:' develops into a small or a colosal capitalist. . . . Faculty and*" the faculty of organising faculty are, as a rule, lodged in different skulls, and the organising faculty is among the rarest of human faculties, . . .

To all practical intents and pwtyro workemn 'helpless J apart from his owlspeciallgifl, an f dj | the jtorgi QrgamseJ is less] usefully Itteo4)rking|hijnßjth|nfo>' setting other people to work." Suppose your Socialist State t set up, says Mr. Wallace!;?thei{capi-* talistic brain would won'capture' the State, or else could—a counter social revolution. Its cupidity wouldinolfoierate restricted income. own plan is to use not abuse him; not to |extinguish him, for we can't—strong for us; but to regulatepMrn., Factory Acts and a graduated income tax are instanced as means of harnessing the cupidity of the capitalist to the car of the general warfare. We must only be careful not to tax himli(wnlt9thai|ortS at which he will cease to find it ■it worth his while to organiso industry for us. "I think it certain that a large amount of the excessive reward of capital-could be safely •recovered though taxation."