Page:The humanizing of commerce and industry, the Joseph Fisher lecture in commerce, delivered in Adelaide, 9th May, 1919.pdf/11

 There are plenty of people in the community who mistakenly use the volume of Australia's oversea trade as the gauge of our prosperity. Thus when, in spite of the war, in 1916-17 we soared up to the record oversea trade figures of imports £76,299,000, and exports £7,955,000, making a total of £174,184,000, or £35 14s. 5d. a head, there were glowing comments on our wonderful prosperity. Even if this gauge of prosperity were accepted as economically sound, which it is not, an investigator would be puzzled to explain why this seeming prosperity was accompanied by the most widespread industrial unrest, and the greatest number of strikes Australia has ever known. Clearly there were enormous monetary transactions in 1917, and no doubt somebody enjoyed great prosperity, but 173,970 employees became involved in 444 strikes, losing 4,599,658 days' work, representing £2,594,808 in wages. We all know that our seeming prosperity was accompanied by a great increase in cost of living. While some people were enjoying greater profits or remuneration than they had ever had in their lives, others found the margin between what they received and what they had to pay out to live rapidly disappearing. There has been no official investigation into the cause of the' widespread industrial unrest in Australia, but in Great Britain the Royal Commission which investigated the cause of industrial unrest there, reported that in the great majority of cases discontent was due to the increase in the cost of living. No doubt the same cause was mainly responsible in Australia. No one can deny, however, that a country which in time of war permits some of its citizens to suffer want, while others do not know how to spend their great gains, is, to say the least, badly governed, and that a social system which produces such results requires amendment.

What then is wrong with this system under which we are working? Some of its faults are quite obvious, and the outlining of them will indicate the direction in which we may hope to make improvements. We produce annually about £200,000,000 worth of products. In 1917, owing to high prices, production went up to £270,427,000. According to the last census figures rather less than half of our population is engaged in production, trade, and commerce, the others being children, women, or dependents. We can probably reckon on 2,200,000 producers, workers, and traders, including 200,000 domestic helpers. How is this industrial army