GENERAL ITEMS

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 22 July 1920, Page 4

GENERAL ITEMS

EFFECT OF FfiODUGTiGN.

Under the optain. "Let's Gro," the Chicago Herald and Examiner published tho following iditoriai, August 22 : -

"Put one huU'.lrec! men on an island where fish is Vue staple article of sustenance. Twenty-five of them catch fish Twenty-five others clean the fish. Twenty-five cook the fish. Twenty-five hunt fruit and vegetables. The entire compan/ eats what thus is gathered and prepared. "So long as everybody works there \ is plenty. All hands are happy. "Ten of the allotted fish catchers stop catching fish. Ten more dry and hide part of the fish, they cacch. "Five continue to catch fish, but work only part of the day at it. ".Fewer fish go into the community kitchen. "i<ut the same number of men insist upon having the same amount of fish to eat as they had before, "The fifty men who formerly cleaned and cooked the fish have less to do owiug to the undersnply of fish. Bnt they continue to demand food. "Gradually greater burdens are laid upon the fruic aud vegetables hunters. These insist upon a larger share of fiah in return for their larger effort in gathering fruit aud vegetabli s. "But the entire one hundred men continue to insist npou tueir right to eat. "The daily food supply gradually shrinks. The man with two fiish ! demands three bananas in exchange or one of them. The man with two bau nas refuses to pai I with one for fewer than three iieh, ... '■Pinally, the ten n,«_-n remaining to work quit in disgust. Everybody continues to eat. The hidden fi-h are brought to light and consumed. Then comes a day when there is no f jod of any kind. Everybody iv tLe island blames somebody else. "What would seem to be tne solution "Exactly! We thought you would guess it. "For we repeat that you can't eat, buy. sell, steal, give away, hoard, wear, use, play with or gamble with what isn't.