Where the Profits Go.

The Hon. Dr. Findlay recently called attention to the Registrar-General's estimate of the people's average annual earnings as per census returns for 1906, one of our best years. The average annual earnings of a man were £94 8s., and of a woman £42 3s. It is evident that these earnings have not permitted page 20 the people to purchase much more than the bare necessaries of life. Our exports (that is, the exports of a few of the people) were considerable, and fortunately for the capitalists, assisted by the Government, they were able to find a profitable foreign market for their surplus, a large percentage of which could have been used to advantage by our own people, even though they had to pay, as they do now in some instances, London prices; but our people did not have, and have not now, the wherewithal to spend in this manner. The above estimate includes the earnings of professionals, and also the highest paid managers.

The capitalist class manipulate the wealth when produced, and direct it into the channels of interest, rent and profits, leaving only a bare subsistence for a large majority of the producers. This high-handed, though legal and customary in justice, must be terminated. It is an incontrovertible fact that the toiling masses will never participate to any appreciable extent in any kind of increased production so long as any form of the private profit system continues. All the people, and not a few of the people, must own our productive industries before the workers receive their due.