EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18157, 23 October 1930, Page 9

EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE.

(To the Editor.) ' Sir, —May I make the following comment on the valuable leading articles and letters which have recently appeared in your columns under the above heading? As I understand it, you and your correspondents are in agreement with the Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Ransom, in his recent declaration that in a time of stress capital and labour should make an equal sacrifice. You also seem to concur in the view that the same principle should apply as between the lender and the borrower of money. If, however, there is to be equality of sacrifice in bad times, it is surely just that there should be equality of reward in good times, and this means, in effect, a partnership with all the privileges and responsibilities of that relation. Thus you and your correspondents have approached the heart, and the true solution, of the industrial problem. It has been my business for many years to advise the controllers of some of our leading financial institutions in their relations with ther customers, and also to raise moneys on a large scale and advise the borrowers in their relations with the lenders. In this work I had good opportunities of observing the practical difficulties of both sides, and I realised that there is no more difficult or anxious task than that of the managers (not the directors) of our' financial institutions.

The main difficulty I found in this work was to ascertain the real nature' of the problems put before me. • This difficulty is greatly enhanced by the confusing technical terms in common use, such as labour, capital, money, currency, interest, wages, taxation, tariffs, eto. In order to be sure, in my advice I found it necessary to disregard these terms and the traditional beliefs about them, and ascertain the actual facts involved in each transaction. I was Anally driven to realise that there are no facts involved in Anance or industry other than the creatures of nature and their living relations with one another; for a nation is simply a number of families of thesenatural creatures combined foiTheir common development and enjoyment, which they secure only by the same means that produce success in the ordinary family picnic, the needs of which are of common knovvledge. In national industry, as in preparation for the small family picnic, it is necessary to divide the families into different occupations or tasks,., and the success of the national industry, and the picnic, depend only upon loyalty to the one rule, namely—devotion to the development and enjoyment of all the members of all the families. In other words, life in the universe is designed as a picnic pastime partnership, and the greatness and enjoyment of every creature in it depends in practice only on the degree in which he devotes himself to the success of that partnership. • Your correspondent, T. E. McMillan, aptly says: “What is the next move?” He is writing from the farmers’ point of view, and I suggest that the next move becomes obvious when the farmers’ circumstances are examined as a branch of the national partnership. At present the farmer is taking the whole risk of unarranged and, therefore, uncertain markets and prices, though in most cases his share of the proceeds of his produce is but a small proportion of the whole. -In effect he is guaranteeing the holders of the other shares so that with an uncertain market he is forced to become a gambler, and when the facts are examined it may be seen that the cards are stacked against him. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the occupation of farming is not now attractive. It would seem clear then that “ the next move ” for the farmers is to get together and urge the Acting-Prime Minister, who is also Minister for Lands, to have the real nature of the industrial problem investigated, by putting the proved experts in‘our different occupations in a witness-box and showing that behind all their confusing technicalities there is known to be going on in nature, and therefore in national industry, -only the simple partnership or»family picnic scheme above described. Proof of this fact will enable those engaged in our national industry to realise that the true policy in it is known to all of them, and that the only way to place the Industry upon a sound basis is for them to recognise that 'they are, inevitably, partners in one enterprise and act accordingly in their different occupations. The only reason why a money system is required in national life is that people have not so far been able to trust one another to be loyal in their different occupations to the national partnership. The real problem, however, is not how to bring all interests into one partnership (they are already there); it is how to escape from the difficulties involved in a money system into reliance upon the partnership spirit. No one can say what ideas will come into men’s minds when they realise and reAect upon the real nature of national industry, but for New Zealand a simple way has already been ! prepared by which the interests of | capital and labour and lender and borI rower may be reconciled in a comi mon objective. This way lies in the general adoption of the employee partnership scheme promoted by Mr Valder of Hamilton and placed upon our Statute Book by the influence of Sir Francis Bell: It does not, of course, follow that when people recognse the real nature of the industrial problem they will want to bo loyal to more than a small section of their neighbours; -but it is clear that until this knowledge is rescued from the technical clouds in which it is now hidden, those engaged in industry are not being given a real choice. When such an investigation as I have suggested comes about, it will be realised that the Gospel re- , oord in 'the Bible is simply a description, and the only true description we I have, of the constitution and practical operation of Nature and the Universe. The true meaning of this record is at

present hidden by our contusing religious creeds just as the true nature ol' industry is hidden by our money ideas. —I am, etc., F. G. DALZIELL. Wellington, 21/10/130-