21 



No. of Per Bread- 

 Bread- winners Per 

 Winers Working 

 Uay. 

 8. d. 

 Less absorbed by 

 products, etc., in 

 the creation of 

 and maintenance 

 of necessary 

 auxiliary instru- 

 ments of pro- 

 ducts, with an 

 estimate physical 

 effective force of 

 3,418,000 bread, 

 winners 3,418 000 1 



Total average level 

 of products and 

 services ab- 

 sorbed by actual 

 breadwinners ... 5 11 



From these figures it will be seen that 

 if the whole of the products and services 

 available for consumption or use were 

 distributed equally, without regard to the 

 skill or effectiveness of the individual 

 breadwinner, all persons receiving more 

 than 5s lid per working day would, by 

 communists, be regarded as robbers of a 

 privileged class, and those receiving less 

 as belonging to the exploited or un- 

 privileged majority. These classes, so 

 far as groups are concerned, would absorb 

 under or over the level of equality (5s lid 

 per working day) as follow : — 



It would appear, therefore, if equality 

 of reward should come to be regarded as 

 the ideal of the people of the Common- 

 wealth of Australia, that the skilled 

 artisans and others as a body would have 

 to pay into the pool quite as large an 



amount in the aggregate as the richer 

 capitalist, to give the lowest group £100 

 per year the necessary Is 3d per working 

 day to raise it to the uniform level of 

 equality of reward, viz., 58 lid per 

 working. 



These conclusions, also illustrated by 

 accompanying tables and diagrams, show 

 that wealth available for consumption and 

 enjoyment is more equitably distributed 

 than is generally supposed, and whatevei 

 may be its existing inequalities and de- 

 fects, it is immeasurably superior to any 

 scheme of communism or collectivism that 

 has ever been attempted or formulated. 

 The programme of the Trades Unions, 

 and the more intelligent of the Labor 

 Party in the United Kingdom and Aus- 

 tralia, are antagonistic to all the extreme 

 communistic ideals of socialists. They, of 

 course, advocate an extension of the idea 

 of State ownership of the more important 

 branches of industry, but it is upon in- 

 dividualist lines strictly not communistic. 

 Liberty, responsibility, skill, effective 

 labor and reward, in accordance with 

 ability, has ever been the ideals of the 

 best representatives of labor in England 

 and in these colonies. 



APPENDIX. 



ANNUAL INCOME OF ALL BREADWINNERS 

 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IN THE 

 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. 



The following tabular illustrations have 

 been carefully prepared, based upon the 

 most reliable official statistics, with the 

 object of showing approximately the 

 annual value and distribution of all wealth 

 produced, designed for consumption and 

 for the satisfactions of the people. Also 

 she wing, approximately, the result to each 

 class of breadwinners, on the assumption 

 that it would be practicable to Pool, and 

 divide the incomes or equivalent products 

 of all breadwinners equally according to 

 the Eisenach Programme of Social 

 Equality, after deducting the necessary 

 materials (estimated at 15 per cent, of 

 annual products) to provide the govern- 

 ment of the social State, with means to 

 create and maintain the existing inanimate 

 and other auxiliary instruments of pro- 

 duction necessary to keep up the required 

 standard of comforts and satisfactions : — 



