Page:The humanizing of commerce and industry, the Joseph Fisher lecture in commerce, delivered in Adelaide, 9th May, 1919.pdf/26

 directed properly it is a hundred and fifty thousand tons a year. Does this not mean that taking the total product, a hundred and forty thousand tons of it is produced by the directive capacity controlling the industry, and ten thousand tons by the labour controlling itself? It is, of course, only fair to point out that the increased production could not be obtained without the labour force, nor could the labour force obtain the increased production without the directive capacity. Consideration of an instance like this, I think, entirely explodes the idea current in some labour circles that the worker is robbed of the full product of his labour. It is inevitable that in such an industry men will be classified according to their capacity and receive remuneration accordingly. Hence certain men must have control over certain others. Alter that condition and you destroy the organization and annihilate the greater portion of the production. The Soviet Government in Russia has found this difficulty insuperable. The workmen there took control of industries. The result was disastrous. Everywhere, in the absence of expert guidance and business management, production approached the disappearing point, until there came the compromise with the capitalists, under which interest was paid to the owner of a factory and high salaries to the management and experts. But even now the outlook is black. Discipline has been destroyed in the industrial army of Russia, and the impassioned appeals by Lenin to the workers to impose self-discipline on themselves appear to be unheeded. The revolution in this respect has caused production to dry up, and the smash has been so great that it may be impossible to return to the old basis before starvation takes toll of millions. The position there is ghastly. So then all men cannot be equal when working in the army of production any more than in an army for military purposes; but once a man passes out through the gates of the works where he is employed in Australia he becomes a citizen, and as such is the equal of, and has equal rights, with all other citizens. There can be only one test of citizenship, namely, decency, and all decent Australian citizens, no matter what occupation they follow, are as good as the best people in the world; under our Constitution all have equal voting power and all have equality of opportunity to rise to the highest position in our country. It does not follow that because we are all equal in citizenship, we of differing tastes must make close companions of each other; ours would be only