The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1919. WHAT IS PEACEFUL PENETRATION?

Taihape Daily Times, 24 July 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1919. WHAT IS PEACEFUL PENETRATION?

With which its incorporated “The Taihape Post. a’ndAWaimarino News.” ' _____________________________________.,

Shakespeare asked what there was in a name, and he went: on to say that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. If Shakespeare had lived to-day. he would have said that “peaceful; penetration” was just as foul, just_ as degrading, and economically enslaving, as by Whatever other appellation might _be applied to it. It -will_be fresh in our memory: that the British Empire was, when. the recent great war burst upon the world, all but readyfor swallowing by the Hun snake of peaceful penetration, and had the Kaiser »and his military lords remained content to alloiv peaceful penetration to complete the work it had so nearly accomplislied, Germany would, by this time, hav.e been virtual _dictator of the trade of the world. 'l.‘raders and peo-ple of our Empire were brought into full vision of the horrors of economic enslavement, the shackles by which Germany was, in a short time to permanently chain up, their economic fl‘ee<i(>lll; and when w':lr broke out there arose the hope that the menace of peaceful penetration had gone for ever. Scheme after scheme was evolved for cutting out all trading connections with the peaceful system of invasion, all being characteristic of noble and patriotic intention, but how futile it all was. It could not be seen in «those early days of war what the ultimate would be; it could not be realised that the victors would experience something of defeat, and, therefore, all efforts to organise ‘after-war trading conditions that would effectually eliminate the possibility of invasion again by peaceful penetration was little else than stumbling and floundering in darkness. The Empire has emerged from the war 0!‘ force, but it has encountered as powerful a foe in trade, if anything, a fierce; and less humane a peaceful penetrator ‘than ever Germany proved to be. German traders made their success by ‘yordinary trading methods; they supi plied what their customers _asked for at in reasonable price; they only took a, , profit that could not be classed as any-tthin-g but fair; they .practised no exforbitance, and their invasion of our 3 markets was truly, -morally and legalily, peaceful penetnation. At the sign‘ing of the Armistice, last November, ‘ we were once more free to look around , and take stock of the Empire’s trading nsitnatilon. {The German Juggernaut, imilirtary and economic, was in ruins, j but passing over us was a much more : friglitftil trade con'tl'apt.ion. ‘The name ; of peaceful invader in no way characterised the death-dealing and health,‘los'”°Ying, the enslaving and starva- ; tion-spreading nature of the new ‘ thing that had overtaken us. In place ;of fair value and honest profits, W 0 l were met with a viperous development 3 that had its origin ‘in the country ‘that ‘protease: clbau i'dem~'oc‘-racy, bzonour, } and freedom; t'he absolute nnd eternal Tight for all nations to determine their I own destiny. Meat ;trusts, shippillg combines, wheat rings, were in virtual i-po.~‘.sessi.on of New Zealand when the ‘smoke of war was lifted from our vision. The honest-priced, peaceful penetration of Germany has <3iS*fIPPOM“ led, and an awe-iiispiriflga. Sand'bagr ibludgeon-weilding, ble&l”Y'9Yod ‘h°l"‘ ror stood fully revealed. An army 3 of profiteers, plundercrs, and robbers istood over our peoples demanding r prices hundreds per cent over the most kliberal stretch of common honesty. Are we to undo;-stand this to be an earnest of America’s clean, pure. democracy, freedom, honour, and absolute and eternal right of all peoples to self-de-

for-mination? American trading pirates, swashbucklers, and highwaymen, Seeing New Zealand’s helplessness and inability to look after itself, descended 1113011 it with such inhuman intent that, to take a very moderate view, must’ h'«lVO its ending in that curse called revolution. Were our people wlorse ofi’ before the war; were ithey less happy in the use of the “Made in Germany” article, bought at a fair price, than they are today, with A-merican everything they require, besides eating New Zealand meat forced up-to famine prices by American meat trusts‘? No laws of international trading ever contemplated such dishonest, corrupt peaceful penetration as that being practised by American trusts, shipping combines, rand rings, controlling everything whereby mankind must live. Is lihis neW hid€ollS trade development a menace G ‘DO the world’s health and peace? If it is, why does our New Zealand Grovernment. place utmost facility in its way of getting possession of our trade and production, and, finally, our land, from whence production comes? Price-in-creasing and wage-raising are now understood to be farcical as a -means of loosing the manacles that American peaceful penetration is. with the assistance of Government, chaining down our people to starvation, and rapidly ‘bringing our farms under the whip of the ttrust-‘t-askniaster. The British Government sees no other solution -of the new peaceful penetration diificulty than introducing serum of the German kind into its blood, German peaceful penetration is prescribed as an antidolte to the virulent, destructive, re-volution-bringing American kind, and we are again to enter into trading relations with our late arcli—enemy. Truly, may it be asked, what is in a name? Is_ not German peace-ful penetration just as sweet as that of the American t-rulsts, -combines, ‘rings, and syndicates? There are big traders and nianufacturors in America against whom nothing can be said, men who are as opposed to contemptible dishonesty as its victims are. Henry Ford was held up vas a peace manaic, butphe was, and is, one of the largest‘ and most. llo'n'oured -manufacturers and traders on the Anlerican' Continent." -Let us quotiei what he says about trade: “The only t_liing,"’ he ‘said, i“th‘-alt counts in the: long run is 'quality,’ and if some fellow in Gtermany, Russia,‘ or China can inake a better car than the Ford, and sell it cheaper, led him do it. It puts it up to me to make mine better and cheaper, and if I can’t compete I have nolright to survive. And,” he continues, "‘the men who want high “protective tariffs, are the men who are trying to get away with poor quality goods, and to make larger profi-ts than they are entitled to.” Greed is the great source of «all wars; -the magnificent young life of this Domini-on has been sacrificed‘ in stemming the greed of Germany,l=and new as many more lives are being menaced; by the greed of men who demand, under the threat of ‘starvation,’ oxtortionatejprices for ‘the very lowest grade, commodities. ‘What a misnomer “-peaceful penetration” is we may‘ yet live to realise t-0 the bitter full. Our people are being inveigled into carelessness about trust methods, and we shall -shortly fin‘,d that the grossest and most dishonest and outrageous of profiteers will be among the leaders of those who lift their hands and voices in assumed horror against the application of the German antidote to their systematic robbery. Which, we ask, is the greater enemy to mankind, he who strives for power and dominion by the sword, 0:: he who starves to satist'_v his greed until the proud British nation has to bow its head in shame in company of Russians and Turks? The cult of peaceful penetration has to be fought. and it may not be inadvisable to first put, the German and American kinds into grips, ...._..._..._._..._..._