The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1919. FARMERS IN CONFERENCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1919. FARMERS IN CONFERENCE.

(With wme& 18 Incorporated The Fidhnpe Port t_ud VralEran-jo News),

'' The constitution of the Xew Zealand Farmers' Union is, apparently,, much more elastic, or comprehensive, than most people suppose it is. Near the Empire City there seems to be considerable flutter amongst farmers, two extraordinarily large meetings being held during this week. At one of these gatherings some half-a-dozen branches united to form a Wellington Branch, and at both politics were the chief subject of concern. It is very regrettable that Farmers' Union Branches can find nothing of importance in the interests of production to discuss till a general election is on the tapis, for then it is found that* their membership is composed largely of political incompatibles and it is hopeless to get the political weight in the balance that should easily be put there. The parochial viewpoint i> the greatest disturber of unanimity, next, there is strong divergence between the views of the squatter and what may be termed the legitimate farmer. It seems that squatters consider themselves something superior to ordinary farmers and think it quite infra Signitatum to attend Branch meetings, or even to link themselves up with the Union at all. On the other hand, there is the farmworker; we were not aware when urging in this column yesterday that the worker was the! natural ally of'the farmer the Union's Constitution provided for admitting workers into membership, but we have it on the authority of Mr. W. H. Field, M.P., that they are eligible for membership, and Mr. Field advocates that an effort, should be made to have them enrolled for the preservation of the industry in a general way. It i« realised that Branches have a difficulty in finding secretaries so gifted that they can provide a highly interesting bill of fare for all Branch meetings, subjects of such absorbing or thrilling moment as would draw attendance and increase membership of the Union. To'get over the small attendance difficulty Mr. Field suggests that businessmen as well as workers should be eligible for membership, but if that were adopted it seems to us that it would no longer be a Farmers' Union, but that it would develop into a political association of a general and promiscuous character, and in the end it, would be dominated by capitalists of the meat and shipping trust ilk who would leave no stone unturned in a propaganda in their self-interest of an insinuating, but sure character. There are two very distinct classes in the New Zealand community that have been exploited, and, wo unhesitatingly say, robbed most shamefully and barefacedly by middle manipulators or trusts, —they are the farmer and the worker, and first, though workers in their extreme stress may not think so, is the farmer. Farmers and workers ■, have striven together to produce meat to feed the Empire's soldiers and their dependents, and munition workers in Britain during four and a-half years of war. and they are continuing to do so till June, next year. The remuneration to pay farmers and workers arranged by the Imperial Government is roughly fivepence per pound. Is it not monstrous; is it not the most barefac-

ed robbery; is it not deception and cheating of the most vulgar and contemptible kind to refuse to let muni-tion-workers and soldiers wives and children in Britain have this meat unless they can pay from eighteenpenec 'to thirtypence per pound for it'? Who arc the scoundrels who have for four and a-half years held up our farmers' and workers' fivepence per pound meat and refused to release it to feed Britain's starving, rationed poor until they are paid an additional shilling a pound? Who is it that has permitted these brutes to get possession of our moat and hold it for such an extortionate ransom? No act of brigandage ever commenced to compare with it; it is the ne plus ultra in legalised robbery, unprecedented in commerce and rarely, equalled in magnitude in any form of robbery, including that of war. We feel sure that Mr. Field would not open the Union door to the devourers of the farmer and all he produces. It. is said that farmers are profiteers for taking what the Imperial Government offered them. What, are those men who have snatched a shilling a pound and gave absolutely nothing for it, got it by the dishonest engineering of capital? Wc are glad to see that the largest and most representative meeting ever held in the Ho'rowhonua realises that farmers and workers are natural

! allies, for farmers and workers on farms produce nine-tenths of money whereby the whole Dominion community lives, and it is from their production that the whole governing machinery and administration is kept moving. Out of the fivepence a pound for their New Zealand meat they pay a large proportion by way of taxation i to the Government, hut what do the men who take a shilling a pound out of our New Zealand meat pay to the New Zealand Government in aid of J keeping the country's business going Farmers are beginning to understand that they are in somewhat of a quandary; at one end they have a voraI cious capitalism that will slowly ab- ( sorb them, gradually kill them, bring them by stepping-stones to a state of servility'even worse than death; at the , other end they are menaced by the Bolshevik, iwho will unscrupulously and without any ado. take their farms and everything else geftable, and if there is any demur f?tey and their fa- , milies will be shot into the bargain. I In the past the farmer has made friends I with, flirted with and been quite the ' good fellow with that class that takes the shilling a pound out of his meat: the farmer is endowed with an uncommon spirit of goodfcllowship, he suspects no one, and he has proved an , easy victim to the insiuating methods of capitalism. Farmers and farmworkers are a class to themselves, their interests canndt bo identical with those of any other class. Then men who produce meat and wheat are just as much a distinct class as the men who manufacture boots and hats. Men who produce hats do not hope to sell them to other producers o! hats, but to those who do not produce then; What we want to make clear is that, although the farmer must do business and be on terms of commercial intimacy with the business community, the interest of the buyer is not precisely the interest of the seller; each i should have his own organisation, but they should certainly coalesce to bring about any condition that would be be- ' neficial to both. Their two natural enemies are capitalism and Bolshevism; both are most dangerous, a destructive menace to the farmer, and if Mr. Field, and the Farmers' Union can evolve some workable scheme whereby a united front can be organised against the common enemies of both, j a great advance in stabilisation of pro- j duction and markets will be achieved. Farmers are in error by their application of the words capital and labour. The farmer is merely a master of a unit of production, a leader of the pro- j ducers who work on a particular area i of land; whereas the modern capitalist I is a parasite upon him as well as upon those who work under his leadership or direction. The farmer apportions the earnings, not in accordance with his own views, but on a basis that is forced upon him by capitalists who | seize upon his products, make and con- I trol his markets. Having, in ordinary i times, only an imperfect estimate Of what his produce will realise after the capitalist has gorged himself out of it, he has to be~iurc of having sufficient to pay taxation" and keep enough to carry on the following year; he also must build up some reserve against the "rainy day," or the drought. Prior to the war the legitimate farmer who did more than this was'indced a rara avis. . It is the capitalist and not the farmer or the business-men of communities who arc responsible for unfair remuneration of labour. It is distinctly that capitalism that is getting its claws and tentacles on to the business-man as well as the farmer, therefore both should combine to combat it by every means acquirable by legislation and otherwise. :