RELATED TOPICS 249 



2. The Fanners' Union, 



(a) G-eneral Principles. The treatment of this 

 subject involves reference to the general question of 

 combinations of capital and labour. What is said in 

 this connection is nothing more than what is evident in 

 the social order of to-day. The avowed objects of the 

 Union will be given later. It must not be thought, how- 

 ever, that the relations of capital and labour are the only 

 topic which our subject gives rise to. That topic is taken 

 as the starting point because it seems more and more 

 evident to the author that the true importance of the 

 Farmers' Union can best be realised in relation to it. 



In the modern economic order there is undoubtedly 

 a class war. "We have in our day a two-fold movement 

 . . . . ; first, a weakening of the old classes based 

 on political privilege and established by positive statute 

 and long continued custom ; second, a growth of economic 

 classes, and especially the emergence of rather sharply 

 defined classes of employers and employees, each with 

 a menacing class-consciousness. The word class-con- 

 sciousness has played and is still playing a great role in 

 socialist agitation."* The causes of this development 

 need not be stated here. They require elaborate treat- 

 ment of the very foundation of the economic system. 



To state that a class-war exists is a very different 

 matter from advocating it as a means of settling the 

 economic problem. There may be those who say that 

 there is no economic problem to settle. Certainly, New 

 Zealand is fortunate in this respect, for the predomin- 

 ance of rural pursuits has saved her as yet the trials 

 of a big industrial problem. But in spite of this there 

 is evident the same tendency, though to a less extent, 

 as is present in great industrial centres. This phe- 

 nomenon of industrial unrest has received more 



*Ely, ' ' Property and Contract in Eelation to the Distribution 

 of Wealth." 



