THE RIGHT TO "CA' CANNY."
(To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR." J
SIR,—I should like to tell you of an incident which has come within my personal knowledge. It bears on the above subject, and incidentally on the wider question of Socialism. During a building boom the owner of a brickyard decided to instal a plant which was guaranteed to produce eighty thousand bricks per week. For a long time be was unable to procure an output exceeding forty-five thousand, and was losing heavily. On the suggestion of a friend he adopted piecework, with the result that the output gradually rose until it reached eighty-five thousand, or more than the guaranteed output of the machinery. The men were an average lot. No doubt they held the common opinion that they jointly with other workers were producing wealth of which they did not secure a proper proportion. As a matter of fact, until the new method was adopted they were not producers of wealth, but simply consumers of capital who were no more earning their bread than the man on the workhouse labour test. During those weeks they were a burden on the community. This is the canker at the heart of modern Socialism. The idea is held that capital (or the State) is a cow that can be continually milked without being fed, or a goose that will produce the golden egg after it has been slaughtered. I hear of no Socialist speaking in public of the duty of producing wealth.
All are engaged in explaining how it shall be distributed and
expended.—I am, Sir, &c., T. HoLuca. Barncroft, Kirby lifuxioe, Leicester.
Previous page
