CAPITALISM ON ITS TRIAL.
Above all, Ministers in the new Government Will do well to realize with intensity the fact that it is the duty of the Government to demonstrate before another General Election comes round that Capitalism can bring prosperity to the country. For Capitalism is on its trial. Under- lying all the heated controversies accompanying the recent General Election and, indeed, underlying political con- troversies over recent years, is the fact that the Socialist Party—which, be it remembered, represents many millions of voters—believes or professes to believe that Capitalism and individual enterprise are antagonistic to the general well-being of the country and that the possi- bility of trade recovery and full employment lies in the direction of State ownership or State controL Those who have now been returned to political power do not hold thatview, but upon them rests the responsibility of demons- trating in praareal fashion the error of the Socialists and the truth of their own convictions. With that end in view, not only wisdom and ability will be required, but, possibly, considerable courage. While fully recognizing that many of the causes of our prolonged industrial depression in this country have been due to unpreventable causes, I believe that much of the trouble is traceable to the fact that Socialism, through the medium of Trade Unions, has been allowed to tamper with and gravely impair the system and organizations on which individual enterprise depends for success. If, there- fore, through the medium of the strike, or through the exercise of any other kind of improper force or in- fluence, the work of industrial and financial recuperation should be found to be impeded by Trade Union and Socialist devices, it will rest with the Government to see that the whole authority and might of the State are used in opposing those influences.
Ministers, in fact, may be reminded that the -very reason offered for the recent General Election was the necessity for obtaining a strong mandate to apply what- ever measures might be required to bring back prosperity to the country. That mandate has now been given. Upon the use which is made of it must depend the future and prosperity of the country for many years to come.
ARTHUR W. KIDDY.
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