WHAT LUXURIES CAN WE AFFORD?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1719, 31 May 1917, Page 1

WHAT LUXURIES CAN WE AFFORD?

(By X. Tiptalf, in “The Organiser,’' London). Can we, as a nation, under existing circumstances, afford luxuries 1 ; If so, how many and what ? I ask the question because, with its usual method of annoying traders as much as possible and helping them as little as it can, the Government, without any warning, has cut off the gold supply from the jewellery trade. Xoav, we may have reached the position when this nation can no longer afford for labour, however unlit for military service, to be employed in the manufacture of jewellery. We may also have reached the position when it is imperative that avo should increase our gold reserve by the utmost possible amount. If that be so, then obviously from a national point of vieAv, it may not be possible to alloAV the jeAvellers (o continue in business, and, despite (he considerable ajuount of export trade that is done, and which we have been urged to encourage by all possible means, the jewellers may have to Jind other occupations, and presumably those of them who are incapable of doing so Avill have to quietly starve. I am not saying that such a condition of things is Avrong under present circumstances; I am merely asking, for the sake of information, if avc have reached that point; because, if so, avo have equally reached the point avluui avc may not expend labour on the manufacture of expensive furniture, or gramaphones, or costly articles of dress, or a thousand other things, on Avhich avc arc, at present, expending a considerable sum. Either avc can afford luxuries, or avc cannot. If avc can, or if avc can afford a certain amount, then any restrictions Avhich may be placed upon those luxuries should, in common fairness to the trades concerned, be apportioned equally, .and no one particular trade should lie called upon to bear the Avhole burden. If, on the other hand, avc cannot afford luxuries, then, instead of going about by devious Avays, as the Government has done in the case of the gold supply to the jcAvellery trade, avc are entitled to a plain, businesslike statement. The commercial classes of this country are absolutely sick of generalities. We are utterly Aveary of large placards on the hoardings, inviting us not to ride a motor car for pleasure, telling us that extravagance in clothing is bad taste, beseeching us not to consume 100 much coal, too much electricity, too much gas. If avo are conscientious, we endeavour to folloAV the directions of the advertisers. If: Ave are not consicentious, avo take no notice of them, except possibly to remark on the foolish Avaste ot money. It simply Avorks out that the decent citizen 'goes without, and the non-decent citizen carries on just as lie did before. If avc may not lie extravagant Avith coal, and the Government are (he curators of the national coal supply, then the Government should say exactly hoAV much coal may be allotted to a household, Avith special provisions, of course, in cases of sickness, or a voting family, or any other extenuating circumstance, which avouUl Avarrant extra alloAvanec. If; the Government says avc should not dress extravagantly, then it should go further and say exactly lioav much dress avc may have. If the jcAvellery trade cannot be tolerated, because of its Avaste of labour on the one hand and the consumption of the gold supply on the other hand, then the Government should call together (he jewellers in quite a friendly conference, and tell them that, as a pure business proposition, they will have to close doAvn. The rotten part of this Government is that it adopts underhand methods; it intimidates the Aveak; it appeals very vaguely and indefinitely to the public to do the things it thinks that the public ought to do; but it does not govern. Democracy is a very beautiful thing in normal times; democratic government is not ahvays possible in a European Avar. We do not Avant to be advised Avhat to do. Wo Avant the Govern-. merit to take the highest expert opinion on any given subject, Avhether it be labour, material, food, or anything else; then, having made up its mind as to Avhat is the best thing to he done AA'ith the particular commodity, to insist that it shall he done. In Germany people do not read placards reminiscent of their early days at Sunday school. They receive orders, and those orders have to be carried out. Why cannot wc do the same here ? If it lie replied that avc are too individualistic, that avc have been trained in an atmo-

sphere of personal liberty, and that, in short, we reserve to ourselves the right to do as we like with our own, it is only necessary to point out that we have, abandoned that theory entirely as far as conscription for the army is concerned. -If we may apply the principle of compulsion to five millions of our strongest, best, and most able citizens in the matter of compelling them to undergo the most terrible hardships, and in many eases, to face certain death, surely we may apply at least an equal measure of compulsion to the people who stay behind. There pan be no arguments advanced for compulsorily sending men in many cases to certain death which will not apply equally to compulsion in the regulation of the conduct of those left behind. After all is said and done, we are at war. \\ c have got to win the war.