The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY FEBRUARY 17, 1919 THE INTOLERABLE PRICE PROBLEM.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 February 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY FEBRUARY 17, 1919 THE INTOLERABLE PRICE PROBLEM.

(With which is Incorporated The /"aitape Post end Wateeri-jo Naira).

There seems to be a determination on the part of dealers and shippers, also to a less firm extent by manufacturerersj to keep up the present ridiculously high value of everything they handle. High prices were attributed to the war, and to the unnatural voracity of shipping companies, but since war ceased and shipping freights dropped to less than half high -cost of 'labour land high price 'of materials are the excuses offered? Notwithstanding shipping shortage, shipping charges during the war constitute the greatest trading scandal of modern "times, and there is nothing in history to approach it. {Ship-owners are the first in the field, howev,er, to try and impress the world with the justness of their war operations by drastic reductions; the first cut amounted to fifty per cent and there have been two other decreases of ten per cent., the whole amounting to about 60 percent, on war time rates. In addition all war risks, special and general have been eliminated from shipping charges, therefore it will be seen that •the immensely lowered charges on

shipping of raw material, shd then on the finished article. a good deal of deceptive reasoning and cunning must be exercised to make consumers believe that prices of manufactured goods cannot be reduced. In viewing th.: situation in Britain, the United States, and Canada, eliminating the whine of dealers and shippers and being guided more by manu-

facturors' and retailors' price lists and reports, we shall find some very considerable difference in prices of most commodities made recently which favour the consumer, and they help an understanding of why New Zealand profiteers are so anxious to publish everything that seems to justify advances on their warrime practices. The gospel of prices must be taken according- to the middleman or he brings down his clinching argument, which is, "you know nothing at all about it." He probably refers to the depth of trickery and artifice, by which his outrageous prices can only be upheld, for vey nearly all facts are opposed to him. A New York market report is being got into publication in this country because it seems to help the high price side of the ques-

tion, but does it? There is a strong suspicion of reluctiancy to admit, or rather to state frankly, that prices have decreased and are still decreasing. It does state that in many lines there is hesitancy to operate until expected readjustments are made, and this will continue until trade is once more on a reliable basis, more satisfactory to sellers and buyers. Then, the ultimate of that basis lias not yet been reached, but matters are tending that way. and we may be assured that Americans will

not take any great risks with their markets by delaying the processes that arc necessary to reach that

reliable basis {hot is going to be satisfactory to buyer as well as seller. "Tho feeling of uncertainty/' states the New York market, "is already passing away, and the outlook is for resumption of sound business conditions in the near future." The report is dealing with trade generally, to trade in commodities of every day use and requirement, presumably such as all classes of hardware, cotton, woollen goods, boots and leather articles, paper, prepared foods and primary products. Manufacturers claim that high cost of labour and high cost of materials leave no room for reduction of prices; the report is notably self-contradictory, it claims hesitancy in operations by buyers, it also claims that bookings

of orders are very so heavy that manufacturers are not disposed to take on new business, but it adds, there are many elements work ing to bring about a readjustment. Such contradiction and indefinite, meaningless, reasoning only illustrates the desperate extremes middlemen are put to in covering the trail of their dishonest practices. It is claimed that the prices of boots and leather goods cannot be affected by the fall of sixty per cent, on wartime ship ping freights, us the freight on a pair of boots isu 't much. Little 'as it is the consumer has the first right to it, and let it be noted that the consumer is also entitled to the reduction of freight and reduced cost of raw material from which the boots were made. There is little short of a slump in the hide market, and freights have fallen sixty per cent., yet, in face of these facts it is speciously argued there can be no reduction in prices of leather goods. The bar to .the export of raw cotton from America has been lifted, prices have dropped somewhat and freights lowered by sixty per cent, but by the logic of the profiteering class, this series of reductions is a reasonable cause for increasing prices of cotton goods, and they impudently publish their opinions, which are, that cotton prices must increase. Robbery in the woollen business is too i barefaced for discussion; wool is sold by the producer at from tenpence to fifteen pence per pound and he is made to buy it back in a worsted suit of clothes at as much as five shillings m.n ounce, and then the vulture pack lay the blame on labour. Is it any wonder that Labour resents such a crime being- laid at its door; ■would i£ not be surprising if there were not industrial strife while such robbery legally continues? On the war prices of iron and general hardware in Britain, America, and Canada there has been very appreciable reduction,, still', many of these reductions have found ■ no- reflection on prices charged in New Zealand, but that is no fault of the retailer, for their invoices,! disclose the; truth with respect to who is seizing upon and grabbing' the"' extra profit the manufacturers' reductions permit. It is as clear as daylight that if there has been any sort of a slump in the hide and skin market; that if the prohibition of the export of raw cotton has been lifted, and raw cotton prices have eased; that if the manufacturers' prices for iron have been reduced —in some cases drastically; if wool is sold by the producer "at fifteenpence, and if shipping freights on raw materials and manufactured articles have gone down sixty per cent, that profiteering is being practised with an added criminal flagrancy that should invoke active resentment, not only from the masses of ilie people, but also from the law and law makers. This disposes of boots and goods, lotton goods ironware, woollen goods and shipping, there only remains labour for consideration. Recently, cables have been used to send stories from Britain and elsewhere about the chagrin, disappointment, and pain caused to workers who have hadsurrender their positions to returned soldiers. The mighty fear of want has commenced its ravages again amongst the workers of Great Britain, and as the preservation of life is the first law of nature, they, in their desperation, are beginning to see no other law, it has overshadowed all other law, but who will say these workers are to blame? If it is not the State's duty to see that there is work for all at a wage conducive to health and vigour, then those who have no work must gradually starve to death. There arc many in New Zealand who cannot understand the position, but it is nevertheless a very terrible reality, and many of our returning soldiers will bear evidence of the fact. With a growing surplus of labour it cannot in all decency be argued that the cost of labour has risen since the war cc-ssed. and therefore that labour has net affected the price either one way 6r the other of the articles and commodities In general u se that are under discussion. But the New York market report sent the round of New Zealand newspapers by interested people, unfortunately for them, gives the key to the whole situation; it states that decline in prices will be gradual so that they may not materially affect holders of present stocks, or of their orders that are yet to go forward. It is a noteworthy fact that the same stockholders actually put up prices even before manufacturers did in the early days of the war. "and it is also a noteworthy fact that some pre-war stocks are still being sold at the highest war prices.