HIGH COST OF LIVING

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10610, 8 June 1920, Page 7

HIGH COST OF LIVING

REMEDIES FOR REDUCTION "AVHAT ABOUT TUB PEOPLES POLICY?” Mr Harold AV. Tidman, of. Karori. writes to tho editor of thp "Times” as under;— Sir,—Tho E.S.A. deserves commendation tor its timely effort to locus pnhbc attention on this pressing question.- Ilia Government unquestionably has an urgent duty in tho matter and judging by the (one of Friday night's meeting, the. public is determined that this duty shall ),o done, and done immediately, it not by the present Cabinet, then by one which shall ho more responsive to the people’s will. ’ Some of the suggestions made on n-da-y evening were thoroughly •round, and will, if given immediate legislative effect to, provide considerable temporary relief. -Other demands put . forward need careful examination. For instance, Lleat-Colonel Mitchell, M.P., roused a good deal of enthusiasm by. a claim that every mother should receive a weekly bonus in respect to each of her children. Our' worthy soldier M.P. will appreciate that unless definite, arrangements could bo made to collect the revenue for such disbursements, from a section ol the community better able to boar the burden than the class ft- was proposed to benefit, it would simply mean, in plain, everyday- English, that mother s bonus would be -taken out of father’s wages. Now sir, we heard a very great deal tho other night in criticism of the Government for its lack of policy, and seeing that tho Government did. not appear to have a policy, the public promptly framed ono for it. But, air, mar it not be pertinon'tly asked, “What about the people's policy?” Surely a strong, virile young nation as wo have grown .up to be. has grown big enough and independent enough to bo able to do without the perpetual wetnursing of the Government. Surely the time has arrived when wo might expect to bo released from our political'parent's apron-strings. I claim that ft has. I claim further, that the practical- remedy for getting at tile root of tho cost of living difficulties liqs right in the people's own hands. J am not a member of any political organisation nor am 1 able.to -wholly subscribe to any particular political programme, hut I do believe with all my heart and soul in the extended ownership by tho people of the means of production and distribution. I am convinced, sir, that this is.tho only scheme by which practical, rtormanent relief from tho present intolerable economic burden can bo obtained. I would like to make it quite clear, however, that in my- humble judgment, this extended ownership should represent the free expression of the people’s will, rather than a coercive, revolutionary measure of legislation.. In other words, if tile industrial, section of the community is not. satisfied with the trading principles and methods at present in vogue in private.enterprise —and it is obvious that this is so—then it is high time that tho industrial classes co-operated for the purpose of doing this trading themselves, thereby reaping the-whole oi its benefits. it may be remarked time the co-opera-tive movement is already soundly established in the Dominion. ■ So it is. But it is for -the most part the cooperation of the Dominion's aristocracy and it has operated, not to the amelioration of the wage-earners’ lot, but it has operated to the -benefit, of an already wealthy class —tho farmers —to tho further disadvantage of. the already impoverished industrialist. It has been a very one-aided and narrow movement, only benefiting a small number, but benefiting these to a large extent. What is required to balance the situation is a mighty wave of industrial cooperation. For some time such a movement might have to content itself with an extended ownership of tho means of distribution, but-tho goal to bo aimed at would he, to so develop , tho movement, that, as in the co-operative movement in the United Kingdom, the workers would ultimately own the means of producing practically all they required. In half a century in the Old Country the workers have developed an organisation which owns its own coalfields, tea and cocoa plantations, also three steamships. It manufactures woollen and cotton goods, enormous quantities of all classes of footwear, iron and tin goods, furniture, brushware, paints, flour and biscuits, jams and pickles, tobacco, >oap and candles, etc. <ln addition the organisation does its own printing, insurance. and last, but not least, its own banking. 1 The whole of this immense industrial organisation is owned, lock, stuck and barrel, by the wago-oaming working class. Its ‘benefits have saved hundredbf thousands of worthy human souls from total, permanent submersion. It has turned masses of w'age-slav.es into free men. In this fair Dominion, the unprecedented conditions arising out of the Big AYar and its aftermu'th have reduced the treasured economic independence of (inindividual to a “mere scrap of paper.” It remains now-, sir, for the individual to gain the highest good for himself in an effort to -secure the general good of his fellow-B.