The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1917. FAILURE OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 November 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1917. FAILURE OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Walmarino News).

The importance of winning this war, to the English-speaking'peoples of the earth, was emphasised by President Wilson, on Monday at a Convention of Federated Labour in the United States. Among other things, he declared that if Germany retains the Berlin-Bagdad' railway she will have gained one of her chief objectives. Federated Labour is virtually scrapping union rules wherever they interfere with war preparations and the production of war material. The American President's remarks indicate that on no account must Germany be allowed to have possession of a quick land trade route to the East, because it would take from Britain what has been her acknowledged territory and markets up to the present time; it would also weaken Britain's prestige in the East and render the South Pacific an easy prey to Teuton domination. The value of this trade route to Germany is discernible through the noise and smoke of thousands of cannon, through the sacrificed lives of millions of people, through the glitter of bayonet and burst of the bomb, through the barrage of lies, of chicanery, cunning and sedition-mongering Through all this and much more we realise -how essential to Germany's world dominion the Berlin-Bagdad railway is. Its value lies in the fact that it can be made to control the trade of tbe whole of'the Far East and of the South Pacific. What Germany is failing to completely accomplish by force of arms she is seeking to altain through peace negotiations. The ultimate of commercialism is trade domination of the world, and to sacrifice it to Germany now would entail the rest of the world being little more if anything, than a vassalage of Germany. English-speaking peoples must prevent this much-coveted railway I from becoming the property of Ger- , many, simply because such a consum- , mation would leave British and American, as well as Japanese manufacturing industries marketless; it would close up British factories, destroy i British trade and finance and make Berlin the hub oT the world, the sun

of the trade and industrial firmament. Tfi fact ? it would result in the British Empire, as such, becoming a back number, and it is the realisation of this that must-urge English-speaking peoples on to prevent the BerlinBagdad railway tailing into Teuton possession and control. The existence of our Empire depends upon the outcome of this war; we must, therefore fight on, and on, until this railway is safe. With it Germany would quickly strangle our Empire, and would achieve in a little while all it has been trying to snatch by force of arms. While Germany has her fighting armies in the she also has other armies, composed of women, children and men who are unfitted for the trenches, at work readying up for an industrial and trade war. There, are millions of people in Germany organised into industrial armies, who are feverishly building up huge stocks of goods and commodities that the world will be almost entirely without. Immediately war is over these goods will be shipped to every quarter of the earth s and as we are doing little or nothing to combat or neutralise German methods what must happen? To-day we are urging people to beware of the made-in-Germany article, but when war is over there will be nothing else, unless something approaching an industrial miracle happens. It is true that America is giving some consideration to this tradewar question, but nothing beyond what private enterprise can accomplish. It is obvious that while the interests of the individual seem to clash with what is essential to the nation much cannot be done to cope with an organised industrial Germany. Private enterprise can never achieve what is equal to stemming Teuton industrialism; English-speak-ing people can only oust Germany from her attempts at trade domination by organising and adopting similar methods. Britain is the most conservative trader among trading nations; selfishness has subordinated the Empire to the interests of the in- ; dividual, and that is why this great var has come upon why we were being industrially crushed by Germany. The evolutio'n of our trade and finance during the last forty years has been guided rather by the selfishness of the individual than the interests of the State. .The private banks that did so much in building up

British Industry have been crushed out of existence' by the present-day' banks, or joint stock companies. The time was 'when banks fostered industry, to-day there is little to assist legitimate business enterprises, banks preferring ito use their money for short loans and discounting. It is beyond dispute that the German banking system is at the very base of Germany's industrial supremacy; it is national organisation of finance, trade and manufactures against our indi-. vidualism and trading isolation. It is beating the' air to say we will not have German goods while we persist; in a policy of individual selfishness, and it will be poor gain to win the , war by force of arms only to find that Germany alone of all the nations of the earth has a complete stock of what is required in the recuperation and replenishing of a wrecked world. About the middle of last year the British Board of Trade began to realise that the very existence of the Empire depended upon a reorganisation of financial and trading methods. Ini- ' tial steps were taken but there was a clashing with the operations of selfish syndicates, combines and trusts, and but little seems to have been accomplished. A Hoard of Trade Committee did recommend the institution of a new bank, to be called the British Trade Bank, and to open accounts only for parties who wished to make use of it for oversea facilities which its constitution was to afford, but nothing has come of it, and nothing useful is likeiy to come from any such proposal unt'l the people insist upon a Government that will not sacrifice the whole Empire to the greed of the few. This war might as well | not have been fought if we are going ' to neglect or leave to unassisted pri- j vate enterprise the winning of the ] trade-war for which Germany is as well prepared as she was for "Der Tag." ' New Zealand is not yet a manufacturing country, and, although we have the coal, iron and other deposits necessary to render us free < from dependence on countries thousands of miles away they will largely lay in the bowels of the earth till more broad-minded industrial peoples get possession. Industries cannot be raised on our mineral deposits because the capital is not available under our financial and trading systems. We must therefore continue to wear out ships by getting our requirements from foreign lands, that is, so . long as the country can produce suf- . ficient to find the money. It is ex- ! ceedingly indignifying, degrading and - belittling to have to admit that our , financial-and manufacturing methods, L if persisted in, can never stop Ger-

many with her rainufarturing and trading aiethods from being the trade king of the world, and when President Wilson was addressing the Federated Labour Convention of the United States his words were the outcome of this realisation. Germany shows' her confidence in emerging from the war with freedom to trade where she will, what is the British Empire doing?