125 

 OBSERVATIONS REGARDING SOME ECONOMIC ASPECTS 



OP THE 



EISENACH SOCIAL EQUALITY PROGRAMME. 



Br R. M. Johnston, i.s o., f.s.s , 

 Goveranient Statistician, Tasmania. 



(Read 13th June, 1904. 



In my previous contributions to the 

 Royal Society of Tasmania dealing with 

 many " Root Matters in Social and 

 Economic Problems," I have elaborately 

 dealt with questions touching the condi- 

 tions affecting the production, accumula- 

 tion, distribution, and consumption of 

 wealth. These, together, occupy too large a 

 field for even a passing review in a simple 

 address, and therefore I have restricted 

 my observations this evening to " Weahh 

 and its Distribution," as at present m the 

 United Kingdom and in the Common 

 wealth of Australia. 



Before dealing with this aspect of what 

 is deemed to be a most important part in 

 all socialistic programmes, it is absolutely 

 essential that we should at the outset 

 understand the true meaning of the terms 

 in use. For example, even if we exclude 

 (as we must do to reason correctly) the 

 free or unmonopolised gifts of Nature — 

 such as air, rain, and sunlight, — which 

 form no element of " price " or " exchange 

 value," there are still, at least, three 

 different conceptions of the phr^-se, " The 

 Wealth of a Country," the lack of a pre- 

 cise grasp, of which, is the rock upon 

 which the extreme wing of the Socialists 

 of the Eisenach, Gotha, and Halle type 

 become wrecked in confasioa and absur- 

 dity. 



The Statistician's " Wealth "may mean 

 either private {i.e. individual wealth), 

 public or State wealth, or both ; but in 

 any case, it rarely embraces more than 

 one-third of the real labor or monetary 

 value of the total " Wealth in Exchange " 

 of the exact JJcpnomist; and certainly 



seldom more than 2 to 3 per cent, of the 

 corresponding total capital value of the 

 true wealth in exchange intended for 

 actual consumption and enjoyment by 

 either capitalist or wage-earner. 



The so-called "Statistician's wealth," to 

 which attention of Social Reformers of 

 existing individualistic democratical 

 organisations is invariably restricted 

 excludes the primary source of all wealth 

 in exchange (consumable wealth) viz., 

 the existing productive personal services 

 of man (Karl Marx's labor unit ), al- 

 though the annual monetary effective 

 value is fully three times as great. For 

 example, in Tasmania the annual value of 

 wealth produced and actually devoted to 

 consumption and personal enjoyment or 

 satisfaction is estimated at present to be 

 equivalent in money to £'7,796,000 This 

 annual wealth, mainly the direct product 

 of man's personal services and of his 

 auxiliary machinery of production, must 

 therefore have at least a bona fide capital 

 \alueof, say, £155,920,000; whereas, at 

 most, the fixed capital wealth, the 

 Statistican's wealth, or the inanimate aad 

 other forms of the auxiliary tools and 

 machinery of production, only amounts 

 to about £40,000.000, or merely 25*65 per 

 cent, (nearly a fourth) of the actual 

 wealth available to capitalist and wage- 

 earner alike for the purposes of consump- 

 tion and enjoyment. 



Similarly we have for the following 

 countries a corresponding analysis of their 

 wealth accordingly, as we refer the term 

 to two very widely differing conceptions 

 to which the same phrase or term is often 

 loosely applied ; — 



