FIXING PRICES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1731, 23 April 1913, Page 5

FIXING PRICES.

DIOCLETIAN AND JACK CADE FAIL. BUT ME. HUGHES WILL THY. Ono of the claims made by tho Federal Attorney-Genera!, Mr. W. E. Hughes, for tho constitutional amendments is that if aoccptcd they will enable the Federation to- fix tho prices of all classes 'of gcods— of the', farmers' wheat and tho shopkeepers' wares, and tho labour of the worker. It has been pointed out by Mr. Cook and others that tho Roman Emperor. Diolectia.il, .in tho days when tho Empire was falling, attempted the same sort of regulation and failed. The illustration from Jack Cade has also been quoted. Mr; Hughes, in a reply, says that the fixing of prices seems to somo memlwrs of the Federal Opposition quite as baffling a problem in economies as that of tho fourth dimension in physics. "May I venture to point out," he says, "that there are quite a number of things of which neither DiocleWan nor Jack Cado ever, dreamed, and which in those days were quite impossible, but which now pass current without notice. Tho world has moved, with stupendous strides, and in' economic and industrial spheres no less thau in ot|ievs. What neither of those gentlemen was able to cfl'oct Carnegie, Rockefeller, tho Beef Trust; and also the sugar monopoly «jf Australia do every day. ■ Why it should bo impossible for tho public to do what private enterprise does is something which perhaps our critics will endeavour to explain." . Ho goes on to quote Carnegie, who once advocated an industrial court to fix maximum prices so that tho consilium- might be protected against extortion, and Judge Cary, of the American Stato Corporation, who expressed the view: "We must come to enforced publicity and governmental control, oven as to prices." The Sugar Commission also suggested, that as the Colonial Sugar Company fixes prices it might bo done, likewise by a pubiic authority acting in the interest of both parties. Mr. Hughes commends these authorities, man all speaking in respect of matters with which they have intimate acquaintance, and upon which no one better able to speak, to those "who childishly imagine tihat with references to Diocletian and Jack, Cade they can dismiss a solution of a problem lo which the eyes of the whole world aro being perforce directed."

Mr. Hughes adds that Mr. Deakin believed in the regulation of prices. He went to the country on his memoranda, in which he stated in plain words Ms belief in the necessity for. this, and attempted lo legislate for it in the - Excise Act till tl>° High Court declared it nllra vires of tho Constitution. Mr. Deakin. indeed, recommended an amendment of tho Constitution in order that Parliament might regulate prices of all gcods in protected industries.