favourable conditions of the market, are manifestly the operative causes of the prosperity. Nor is it a fair reply to say that the owners also bear the losses' in reduced value of their capital and lower dividends. For when a business ceases to pay, or makes a loss, though capital suffers, labour usually suffers more, either from wage-cuts which hurt the worker and his family more than loss of dividends the capitalist and his family, or from unemployment or short time, which mean destitution qualified by the 'dole.'
In other words, the sole ownership of a business by the owners of its share capital denotes an inequitable structure. For in reason and morals it equally belongs to the owners of the other active factors of production, the brain and hand workers who contribute to its product and depend for their livelihood upon its regular efficient working. There is a cleavage between the legal and the 'real' ownership that finds damaging expression in a constant bickering and occasional conflict between the capital and labour whose harmonious co-operation is essential to full efficiency. No reasonable rules for the pacific settlement of such conflicts exist, or for the apportionment of the income of a business between the several factors of production. Terms like 'fair wages' and 'reasonable rate of profit' have no clear ascertainable meaning, and there exists no criterion of a 'just price' for a Consumers' Council to apply.
3. Recent large and rapid fluctuations in monetary values, or price-levels, have disclosed another source
