THE TRUTH OF BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 8, 5 October 1920, Page 8

THE TRUTH OF BUTTER

DAIRYMAN AS THE SCAPEGOAT ARM-CHAIR JUDGMENTS 'TODSNAPPING"THE FACTS [Artiole No. IV.] (Published by Arrangement.) Olio uf the maxims of itocheloucauld, a Jiimouß .French cynic, is to tiio effect that ft sense of humour enables peopla to find entertainment and comfort in the misfortunes of their friends. Jlany persons in New Zealand to-day, persons with no grudgo against the butter producer, would be pleased to se© tempesW of popular wrath swirling and roaring about him. The feeling underlying that wish is not one of unkindiiess iu some casts; il. is merely selfishness. The thought of such a person is simply this:. "If the cry of tho hour is against tue fair market value of butter, it will not be against myself. In the agitation about butter, I shall escape notioe." Anybody who has any cause to fear publio resentment (right or ,wrong) against a certain action, or lack of action, will bo nalilrally quite glad to see the public stirred up against the butter producer, u 110 would thus till the convtmient part of scapegoat for all, Tho position justifies the quotation of a few verses from Leviticus on the subject of tho scapegoat:— And Aaron shall lay both Mb upon the head of the livo goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their siqs, putting them upon the head of tho goat, and shall 6ena him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, » • a. • I And the Roat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited; . and he shall let go the eoot in the wilderness, •' « » I I « And he that let go the goat for * scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and ■ batho his flesh In water, and afterward come into the camp. Who Has the Right to Point the Finger of Scorn? -In the case of butter who is to. bo the "he" that is to "let go. the. goat for a scapegoat . . . and afterward come into the camp"? • Will tho coal miner regard himself as tho "fit man" to -send the goat into tho wilderness!' When the miner is busy at his job, he is a good New Zealander whose-work has a very important part in the national soheme of things. It i« admitted by all reasonable people that when the miner is doing a fair day's work, the nature of the toil entitles him to a reward proportionate to hft exertion. But stop-working is not arduous; striking is not strenuous—at least, not; for the minor. The wear and worry of stop-working and striking are for the wives and children of tlie miners and the wives and children of the whole of the workirig-clasi (in which are dairy farmers. their wives, sons and daughters). Therefore the public will not regard tho coal miner as the "fit man" to choose a wilderness for the crane scat. Is the watersider a "fit man" for tho corembny? Does his social' servicein these times of go-slow and stop-work meetings—qualify him to act as a kind of high'priest for the public to' condemn tho dairyman as one who is not doing a eooial sorvioe equal to tlie watersiders, and to consign him, with kicks and curses, into the wilderness? The public, with proof of tho cost added to living by tho wutersider's slackness in social service,' wiil not'regard him as the "fit inau" to decree the fate of th# scapegoat. Who, then, is the "fit. man" fo# the responsibility of refusing fair treatment of the men and women who have never gone slow, and have never struck in their social service of providing butter for the public? A Little Heart-searching.. Let the average consumer of butter look into his own. mind and heart and search his conscience.—What-does, he 9ee there? He- feels that it is unpleasant to pay more for butter. Because it is unpleasant, he has a notion that the extra charge cannot be right. Then he;begins to feel indignant aj; tho prospect; he finds his indignation echoed by his neighbour, and so the chorus swells. How much does th® average oonsumer know about the Cost of production of butter? How much docs ho know of the drudgery of dairying life? How much does lie . try to learn? Does ha try to see the case from the viewpoint of the dairyman and his hard-working fe.mily? If the average consumer is frank, after his examination of his mind and heart, he will admit, that he looks at the case from bis'own point of view. He has been annoyed by various increases in the cost of living, and now tint the ■ butter producer—the last of the suppliers to press for justice—requests a fair deal, the average consumer. is apt to exclaim impanmtly: "This is beyond mv patience." In his resentment of any increase in the cost of living, ho is not in a mood to study the facts of the dairyman's case; the oonsumer hotly waves the facts aside. This is perhaps, but >t is notj just; it is not reasonable, for the facts of . tho dairyman's position have to be faced. Public Apt to be "Podsnappish." In "Our Mutual Friend," Charlea Dickons introduced a character, Podsnap, who took a short cut with facts which he disliked. He merely flushed with indign>tion, flourished his right arm, and thus gave tho facts a curt dismissal. Hero is a passago on Podsnup: . Thus happil7 acquainted with lis own merit and importance, 'Mr. Podsnap settled that whatever ho put behind him he put out .of existence. Thore was a dignified conclusiveness —not-to add a grand convenience—in this way of getting rid of disagreeables, which imii done much towards establishing Mr. Podsnup in his lofty place in Air. Podsnap's satisfaction. "1 don't want to know about it; I don't clioooe to discuss it; I don't admit it!". Here is what happened when Mr, Podsimp was faced with a hard fact: ' This being something in the nature of a poser for Podsnap, he merely waves it away with'u speechless/wave, However, no amount of spcechful or speeolilcss waving of hands or hasty, 0110-eyed judgments can destroy facts. A Podsnappish flourish of the arms, wiili a flush of indignation, does not whisk away tho high price of land on which many returned soldiers and other produceis have been settled in recent ywrs; il does not change the fact,-that butter piodiicers have to pay double and treble ■' tlie former prices for many things required on their farms or ia their homes. • If tho publio make 9 a candid confession confidentially to itself, it will admit that it is apt to be Podsnappish about facts which it is reluctant- to face. By ignoring the ever-increasing costs that have, been piling up against the. butter producer, the public says in effeot to the dairyman: "We want cheap butter. The cost of production is your affair—not ours. We have tho sacred right to cheapness as consumers, and you have tho sacred Tight to supply us ul«the price to which we have a eacred right. Oracles of the Arm-chair. That is the arm-chair rsttitude of the consumer of butter—but it is seldom that the best judgments of difficult matters oome from the arm-chairs of laymoil. Who—except tho not. an "arm-chair marshal" at one stage or other of the war? We all like tho arm-chair rolo for eomething or other, but wo shoul# not be «) foolish as to expect the world to accept our amateur arm-chair guesswork as if it was tho judgment of a Goloinon or a Solon, based on a full ooraideration of all available facts. The Podsnapping arm-chair scrapping of facts caunot do justice to men and women—the butter producers—who are among tho beat of New Zealand' - ' saria! servers. [Tho fifth advertisement of this eerieq will appear in to-morrow's issue. ArlJ; clra I, 11, and 111 woro published iu Th» Dominion of October 1, 2, and 4, r*