CORRESPONDENCE

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 425, 12 November 1918, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

FARMING AND LABOUR IN TERESTS (To the Editor.)

Sir,—As some exception has apparently been taken to certain remarks made by me at a meeting of the Farmers' Union held at Otaua recently, as reported in a recent issue of your paper, I shall be glad if you will allow me space for an explanation.

In the first place I should like to point out that I «tid the " interests" and not the " ideals " of the farmer and worker wera almost identical. In this I make a deliberate statement, but did not say, and I am of the opinion that no sane man would have said, that the " ideals '' of the farmer were the same as those expressed by some of the public utterances and resolutions passed at a few of the Labour Conferences. Now what I said and meant to convey is that in our political and social life there is a clean cut issue " Capital and Labour" and we must be on the side of one or the other. It does not matter whether we are farmers or tradesmen, professional men or labourers ; as long as we work for our living we come under the heading of labour. A great many farmers deceive themselves with the idea that because they own a few hundred acres of land and drive a motor car they are bloated Capitalists, whereas the only difference between the majority of farmers and the Labourites is that the farmer has brought himself into a life job. But " Capital " as referred to by me consists of Monopolies, Trusts and Combines. It never works for its living, but depends for an existence upon exploiting both the producer and consumer. It feeds on every section of the community. It seeks by the magnitude of its banking account to get a strangle hold on every source of income to handle the product of both farmer and worker. It is the great middleman ;it monopolises the source of natural wealth—coal, iron, oil, etc —it gets a hold on the means of transportation on land and sea ; it handles the products of the soilmeat, wool, butter, etc, which the farmer by long hours and hard earned experience has wrested from Nature, and in doing so exploits the consumer in every part of the world ; it hindies tlm great products of sweated labour and thereby exploits every section of the community. Under its influence the miner does not fix the price of coal nor the farmer the price of meat and wool. Tho present extremely low purchasing value of the sovereign is directly due to tho merciless machination of Capitalistic Combines. Yet capital is useful and we cannot do without it, still it must be kept in its place ard as long as Capital is used simply to promote production in order to bring down the cost of living all is well, but when Capital governs, as at present, it becomes the enemy of both the producer and consumer. Therefore the interests of the farming community and of Labour are identical, inasmuch as both are exploited by tho Capitalist, and they are identical in that what the farmer produces Labour consumes, and what Labour produces' the farmer consumes. Neither one can do without the other, yet both are capable of raising sufficient capital to carry on their particular industries without getting into the hands of Trusts and Combines. Now it must be apparent to every sound thinking man that never before has exploitation been more flagrant or unscrupulous profiteering carried to such an excess as during this awful war, when both 1 farmer and workers are doing all that is humanely possible to speed i up production and to help our Em- [ pire in her hour of need. What then is the reason of all this ? Capital rules ! This therefore is where the interests of the farmers and the workers' Unions are " identical." Therefore we must pull together to defeat our common enemy, must arrange for closer communion between the producer and consumer, must educate the masses along these lines until they see that the salvation of the situation lies in a common action by a united front, by a reformed up-to-date platform, in other words a " Wise Government." This can only be accomplished by every section of the working community realising that their interests are similar and even as the only way to defeat an army is by an army so the oDly way to compete against a Trust or Combine of Capital is to create a combine of producers and consumers.

In this direction we want sane labour to come to the front. The day of Ked Feddism is past; we want a Government of the people by the people, consisting of younger and more vigorous men capable of push ing forward a truly progressive policy, a Government which is above corruption, which will faith fully peform its sacred trust and in more than name will work for the greatest good of the greatest num ber. A wise Government that will seek to foster the agricultural and manufacturing industries to increase production as the only means of rising the value of circulating mt-dia, which is the only fair and Kjuitable solution of the wages problem. Thif can only he accomplished by the Farmers' Union and Labour Unions both sinking their present petty differences and party strifes and together reaching towards the i mark of our high calling which is the common good of a common peopl . I mil, etc., S. OLDFIELI), Franklin Organi.-or Farmers' Union