Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9450, 21 May 1909, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

WE regret to notice that the Rangiwahia Branch of the Farmers’ Union has suggested to the Wellington Conference that .the Freetrade question be deleted from the platform of the Union. It is evident that the proposer of this does not realise the disastrous effect of restrictive tariffs on all the primary producing industries. These cannot possibly be “protected,” and they have to pay for all the extra expense involved [in “protecting” the other industries. Every'factory which cannot exist unless the“whole community is specially taxed for its support by restricting imports so that it may demand artificially increased prices for its wares, really represents a special burden on,the producers, and also tends to lessen j,the volume of trade and commerce, and prevent the proper development of those industries for which the country is suited. We [have no"doubt that there are many among the leaders of the Union who will unite in retaining the freetrade, or rather revenue tariff plank. It is the most important plank in the Union’s platform, and if it had no other, it would be sufficient reason for union. If it can be given effect then all difficulties in regard to finance would disappear, and the special taxation of land-users could be abolished. Under present conditions the producers hare to pay largely increased prices for all supplies they require, and what they pay does not in any way benefit the revenue. Very cunningly the labour unions have so arranged things, with the help of the politicians, as to enable them to escape taxation, and at the same time compel taxpayers to contribute money su that they may enjoy higher wages and work shorter hours. It is the man on the land who is specially interested in the abolition of all restrictive tariffs, and in arranging a customs tariff that shall yield revenue which is now lost. At present, while one class of the community has been relieved of taxation to a very large extent, the land-users of this country are being made, to contribute to the public funds nearly three million pounds annually in rates and taxes. There is no reason why the burden should not be distributed more eqnitably, and the only way to effect this is to substitute a revenue tariff for the duties that now shut out cheap supplies.

THE people of Britain or at any rate those of them who have the ear of the public seem suffering from a mania for self depreciation. In every department of life, if we may believe what we are told, Britain is losing ground and the proud Empire which has stood so long as the visible embodiment of liberty and progress is rapidly crumbling into decay. Yesterday Lord Roberts told us that the British Army is totally inefficient. and that it would be as useless for purposes of defence as a flock of sheep attacked by wolves. Mr Balfour and a large number of retired admirals are busy explaining that the Navy is disgracefully mismanaged, and that, though at present Britain has more ships than any other two powers , it only requires two°or three years to pass for her fleet to be inferior to that of Germany. Then the advocates of aerial warfare take a hand and lament that Britain has no Zeppelin airships or Wright aeroplanes, and blame the Government for not maintaining a two power standard in airships. Most people admit that Britain has never shown great capacity for army organisation, but in commercial affairs at least, the nation of shopkeepers has held its own in the past. But if we can believe the so-called tariff reformers British trac|e is in even a worse condition than the army. The baneful influence of freetrade has checked enterprise .and yearly the British manufacturer is being shut out of protected markets and losing his superiority in neutral markets. At Home the dumping of goods from protected countries is throwing thousands out of work, and the number of unemployed may be numbered by hundreds of thousands. workhouses are overflowing and starvation is the lot „of many hardworking men and their unhappy families. The race has not its old energy even in sport, and the games which once gave health and strength to so many are now played by hirelings, while a mob of undersized cigarette-smoking youths and men crowd the stands to applaud the exploits of professionals. All these and a thousand other complaints are

being daily ottered by men in high places in Britain and her over-sea Dominions, and form a new Book of Lamentations almost without parallel in the history of the world. Look where we will we can find hardly a bright spot in the sky, and we cannot but feel as if many hands were occupied in writing Mene, Mene, Tekel—thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting—on the pagjs .of the history ot the Empire.

NO one will deny that it is not a healthy sign for people to be constantly running down their own country. This habit .is one of the defects of the British race and comes from a sort of false modesty, which fears to offend by taking too favourable a view of one’s own affairs. If we turn to the journals’of a hundred years ago we find the same assurances that the country was going to the dogs; and the same prophecies that disaster was imminent. The critics will admit this fact, but will urge, as they did then, that tie situation is now really serious and that their warnings oan only be neglected at imminent peril to the Empire. We do not wish to assert that Britain has no . need to set her house in order, or that there is no need for strenuous effort to maintain the high position which the Empire has tained, but the critics defeat their own object by the multitude and variety of their denunciations. If all the facts vouched for by the prophets of evil were true the Empire would melt away like an early frost before the hot sun. One thing to be .noted is that these jeremiads always grow |in volume and strength when'the Conservative Party is in opposition. The great majority of the wealthy men in Britain belong to the Conservative Party and the press is to-day largely coutrolledjjby men of wealth. Men naturally.think that of the country cannot be successfully carried on by those who hold opinions opposed to their own, and this is specially the case when a party is in power that. threatens to tax more heavily the incomes of,the rich. If the bankers wbo waited on the British Prime Minister the other day to represent the fearful effects which’would follow on the passage of the new Budget had been really in earnest, in the belief held by most of them that not enough Dreadnoughts were being built they could easily have offered to present a battleship to the country. A few of them represented banks I with capital amounting to £230,000,000, and, therefore, they could have afforded to make an offer which would have had an electrical effect. The campaign of criticism is, in fact, largely inspired by political motives, though, no doubt, most of tfiose who complain honestly believe that they are serving the best interests of the people of the country, not excluding their own. We hope that before long reviving trade will help to produce a better feejing, and that the oroakers will realise that the tone of public opinion requires bracing rather than lowering treatment. If people look at the bright side of things they aie inspired to work so as to make it still brighter, while if they are always shaking their heads and predicting the worst they are apt to forget to take steps to prevent their prophecies coming true.