LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 266, 6 August 1919, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PROFITS AND THE CONSUMER

Sir.--The statement is attributed to the Hon. i\|r. MacDomild that the Board of Trade had no power to regulate prices, am! that the public would bet.er appreciate its activities when they had s-.een the voluminous and valuable l/epoHs which would shortly be presented lb I'arn'a'nent. '~ 'Ihis looks like Mocking the stable door after the horse has been stolen, and is noor comfort to the distressed bank clerk* after he has paid his monthly bills durme war time, to be calmly informed that his tradesman had charged him 10 or 20 "■*'* per cent, more than he ought to have done, and this may bo the case, as we have Hist been told by the Acting-Minis-ter of Finance that tradesmen's, pront.3 !mve increased during the war. We all l"now that traders' profits are only ascerfainable oncu a year, and it is passible ho nmv have innocently been charging pre-war percentages on post-war prices, in which case hie profits would be .double, and in some casts treble, on articles sold over the counter. The boot ' i salesman would therefore have an extra I Ss. or more on every pair of boots sold, the draper an estra 105. or 20; oh every bonnett or costume, the grocer an extra lev? per week on every household for necessaries, 'while the profits on woollen and other manufactures are beyond comnutation.'. All wo know is that the woollen mills pay the farmer about fitteennence a pound for his wool the price of which is fixed for him by Order-in-Council, as well as everything- else he produces, at about half its economicvalue, or less, while the Board of Trade or the Minister allows every other body to charge the farmer just whatever they like to ask. It does seem 6trange when the farmer's We is fixed by Order-in-Council, that the price of every other commodity, coal included, cannot be fixed as well,'on an anu.illy low scale.—l am, etc., FIUMARY PRODUCER.