The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1922. THE ROAD TO THE STAR

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15100, 22 November 1922, Page 6

The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1922. THE ROAD TO THE STAR

One of the best known figures in Hie British Labour world, Mr. A. Appleton, secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions, scum me nibs ago gave expression to so.r.e excellent counsel, applicable as well to New 7ea.'and as to Great Britain. ‘ Tc> hitch one’s waggon to a star” said Mr. Appleton, “is always good; but having once chosen that form of motive power, it is well occasionally to leave the star to look after itself whilst we keep an eye on bumps in the ,road. Otherwise our journey to the heights is apt to end in the ditch.” It is a pity that this commonsense sentiment is not more generally endorsed by responsible Labour leaders. For instance, men imbued with a full sense of the responsibility implied in Appleton’s unanswerable logic would never seriously recommend to the workers who look to them for guidance the suicidal retaliatory 'policy of irritation strikes and go-slow tactics of which this Dominion has from time to timejiad experience. As Mr. Appleton says, the worker hitched his waggon to a star when he decided to adopt the ideal which Ruskin sums, up in the saying: —“Felicity, as well as food.” That was the ideal which brought the trade union movement into being, and banished for ever the old conception of the worker as one whose day's beginning was but the prelude to unremitting toil, and whose day’s ending was the prelude only to the slumber of exhaustion. Unfortunately, however, the ideal of a 'better standard of living and leisure is so that it is apt to make us forget that the working out of ideals depends on the way we handle practical detail. All the things which man desires arise or are paid for out of the product of industry. Without work, applied in appropriate ways, nothing good can come to us; because there is not the wherewithal in the world to provide it. What is to be 1 our own share of the essential or .beautiful things of life is primarily decided by how much of these things there is to share; not by the manner of sharing them. Plans for sharing life’§ sood things, expositions of the right to such shares, may be beautiful pieces of academic theory in themselves; but they are dependent on the wise provision of plans for the production of that which is to be shared. The use of either set of plans, and their practical effect, depend entirely on their order of precedence. All reasonable men must agree - that the putting of- first things would solve many industrial problems. The combination of work, capital, and brains in productive industry is the first step in producing any standard of living. The f product of the effort thus put forth is the second step, depending entirely on the wisdom and prodigality with .which we enter into the first. Then, and- only then, can we have any grounds for considering how much we have produced shall pass into our own use. “In other words,” says the General Federation Secretary, “if we desire anything we must earn it. If our desires call for more of food and felicity than industry can now yield, we must make industry more productive. All the logic in the world is falsified if it stands on any other premise. Ideals as to standards of living arc good because they give us something to work for; hut we have to cease gazing at them and take off our coats if they are to be anything but ideals.” In the article quoted, Mr. Appleton was, of course', speaking more particularly to the workers of the Old Country, but the wise advice he gave them is just as applicable on this side of the world. Thus —It is a fact impossible of contradiction that Britain’s industries arc not producing sufficient to-day to give an adequate standard of living, let alone an ideal standard, to all Britain’s population. The problem which faces us is how to make our industries produce more; not how to aller the distribution of what is already produced. IL follows therefore that the man who will not give his labour lo industry unless he at once gels a return which will let him live according lo his ideals is making a grievous mistake. He is _ travelling di loti ward rattier than skyward. Such an attitude is equivalent to declaring that wo will not take the trouble to eat (ill we have a good meal. The same applies lo Hie man who, owning capital, keeps it in Government securities until industry makes an equal dividend possible. Both are waiting for some tiling which will never happen unless they wade in and make il happen. To-day we must give’up quarrelling about shares, or stating condiI ions under which alone we will give of our best to industry. We must be prepared to take the risk of giving out all and taking the reward which in-

dustry can give us for the moment; trusting to our own efforts, and to nothing else, to make that reward greater as time goes on. Life yields nothing to the man who is not prepared to give before he receives. The only secret of rising from our lowered standard of living to something better is in getting the right sequence: “First work under commonsense conditions; then the product of the work; then the sharing of the product according to right and need." All other ways are vanity.