The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 20, 1919, Page 8

oy 1 T S N L B b ’ Profitable to The sixth of a series of 10 articles by Mr. Mills, well-known writer and lecturer, on “New Zealand Before the War.” ) R o sl BY WALTER THOMAS MILLS 2N ALL frontier settlements co- operation everywhere and al- ways prevails. The system of industries and markets neces- sary to the existence of great private enterprises is always lacking. It is impossible for the individual worker to pro- « vide for himself. “Changing works” everywhere prevails in frontier settlements and is nothing other than a co-opera- tive method of carrying on the undertakings which can not be successfully taken care of with each man working by himself. The early settlements in America were co-opera- ‘ tive. Fighting Indian wars and providing for an b exchange of services in production whenever coliec- ! | tive action was necessary, as in logging off a field or in raising a barn were everywhere undertaken by joint action for the common good, not for the private profit or advantage of any ome, and that is the soul of co-operation. A ¢ It is only when such ¢o-operative efforts have enabled a new community to more than provide for itself that private enterprises in production and trade are able to impose on these communities the task of taking care of someone else first and of i - themselves afterwards. : Public ownership in ‘any undertaking is nothing other than co-operation with the whole body of the community acting as co-operators. Voluntary co-operation of a part of a community always sug- gests the larger advantages which would result to | all those who join, if the whole community were |+ 11 identified with the enterprise. y { s When the majority of the people in a self-gov- " erning country are able to understand this, public enterprise. is as sure to follow voluntary co-opera- tion as voluntary co-operation is sure to be adopted . in an_ intelligent community as compared with the undertakings of the private grafters. PRIVATE MONOPOLIES OR" PUBLIC OWNERSHIP There are many things involving collective action, like telegraphs, telephones, railways, warehouses and elevators, where the economies { of co-operative undertakings can not be realiz- 4k ed._unless undertaken on a scale sufficient to il serve the whole community. If undertaken by e D P R% 17 Cowis T T T ARSI A a part of the people on a scale large enough to i serve all of the people, they would necessarily i have to be provided on the basis of providing . | profits for those who do invest and at the i | expense of those who do not., Public. owner- { ! " ship is the only scheme ever devised by whjch : the men who do the work. State ownership of the public utilities and banking . {i| il facilities supplied by the state naturally give an impetus fo co-operation. In Y W our own country co-operation has hardly a dog’s chance becanse the com- - ‘ A co-operative sawmill in West Australia, It is owned by the trades unions of _mon services the co-operators need aré in the hands of their enemies. How Nation Succeeds as a Merchant State Efforts to Bring Producers and Consumers Together on Cost Basis Prove Both Classes—Recent Allied Beef Scandal | all of the people who share in the benefits of an un- dertaking will necessarily share also in the cost of building and equip- ping the undertak- ing and as the whole community shares in providing the equipment and in bearing the risk profits become en- tirely unnecessary and hence the com- modity or the serv- ice may be justly furnished at cost. In irrigated, districts where the farmers un-’ der the ditch become the co-operative own- ers of the water sys- tem, they pass easily and = naturally to co- operative organizations in providing and in dis- tributing electric power, telephones, and finally, to producers’ organiza- F tions for co-operation in the miarketing of their products. . But the agencies which are established through which the farmers’ products are sent to the market, are very quickly taken advantage of to be used also as buying agencies for purchasing the farmers’ supplies. A RECORD OF PROGRESS There are a good many co-operative ereameries in New Zealand organized on the basis of a pat- ronage dividend, that is the profits to be divided among the patrons, not on the basis of the stock owned, but on the basis of the cream furnished. Forty years ago there was a very serious con- troversey between trade unionists who were fight- ing for better wages, co-operators who were fight- ing for better prices in the purchase of supplies, and the advocates of public ownership who were attempting to obtain both better wages for workers and better prices for buyers by cutting out of the problem altogether the element of private profits in every necessary public service. But actual experience has demonstrated that all three of these forces were attacking the same problem from different points of view. The mest successful organizers and managers of co-operative undertakings are now the most powerful cham- pions of public ownership. Today in Great Britain and in Australia and in New Zea-_ land practically every co-operative o society which is . really co-operative and all the trades unions hold mem- berships as units in the Labor party which is every- ‘where making the battle.. for - public _ ownership. i As publiely owned enterprises have ad- vanced in New Zealand and Australia more and more the . nation has become a merchant as i+ well as a producer. This f is particularly true of coal, of shipping, of meat, and fially, what was proposed - while I was in Australia has “ been _ successfully” ac- complished since — the PAGE EIGHT taking over by the gov- A wool market owned and managed by the state in South Australia. The re- moval of speculators, forestallers and duplication of effort which the farmers otherwise would have to pay for, is simply enlightened business sense—for the farmers. The wool market regulations which our country adopted during the war, with the same ends in view, made higher prices to our wool raisers possible. Why not be more efficient in peace as well as in war? ernment of the whole sugar industry, becoming the only buyer of raw sugar and both the refiner and the marketing agent for its disposal. It has been seen in a previons article that the cost of establishing publicly owned enterprises has - been provided for out of the earnings of these un- dertakings.- This is true of markets as well as in- dustries, but even during the period while pay- ments are being made for the cest of establishing the undertakings enormous savings have been everywhere immediately realized by all consumers. Throughout the war the Australasian countries have sold a loaf of bread weighing 32 ounces for about one-half the prices charged in the United States for 12 ounces—pretty good kind of a bread merchant. It might be further said that the Aus- ¢ tralasian loaf is the“best produced anywhere in the world, while the American commercial loaf is the poorest that can be found in any market anywhere so far as I know and I have eaten bread from most of the markets of the world. BUCKING THE TRUSTS 2 v In the sugar industry, with investment of many millions of dollars in the enterprise, the price of sugar has never gone beyond 7% cents throughout the war period. The highest price quoted in St. Paul for the same period was 12% cents. But the Aus- tralian sugar was grown, made, transported, refined and finally sold and delivered with white labor— more than that with organized labor working under the eight-hour day and with union wages at every point in the process. : In the matter of beef the slaughter houses have been publicly owned for a lapg time, but the -slaughtering was done for a fixed price for private dealers. When the government in West Australia operated the slaughter houses directly and estab- lished the local markets and took over the coastal steamship lines which were depended upon to bring the beef from the northern ranges, it immediately increased the price paid the farmer for the cattle at one end of the line and cut the price in two pre- viously chargd for beef at the other end of the line. When the Queensland state government first took over the meat business beef which had been selling for 25 cents was offered in the ‘state shop for. 15 cents and a little later for 12% cents. For some time the Australian government has been taking over the total beef product. It has been - paying the wholesale price at the rate of 12 cents: for beefsteaks and selling them at retail for 15 cents. ' The total Australian beef product for the period of the war available for export has been sent to Great Britain at 12 cents a pound, and one of the most embarrassing problems now under con- sideration between the home government in London and the farmers of Australia, is to find some rea- sonable explanation for having paid Australia 12 cents a pound for beef and#sold it in the markets o Lot .t (Gontiued.on page 18) - . -