The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1919. TRADE CANNIBALISM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3330, 7 November 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1919. TRADE CANNIBALISM.

5-; With which 119; incorporated “The Taihape Posh and Waimarino News.”

All preconceived notions as to what. the nature and status of. w-o7rld trade would be after the war are completely shattered. People of the British Empire are awaking to the fact that trade war is not being directed against the inherent treachery of German. character, but that it has been turned against lthemselves; that trade was is a. civil war in which every m-an’s hand is raised against his fellow countryman, not against the treacher.ous'Hun and his fellows in. crime. The German has been rendered a veritable ‘mac “dry bones” for the time being, therefore trading vultures llave become cannibals, eating out the life of the Empire of which they are professedly‘~ members. The war has intensified the trade robbery,_but« it was not responsible for lit; it had no part in its initiationr Trading cannibalism and internecine gcommercial war commenced with the _inception of tflusts, combines, syndi- ? cates, corners, bulls and bears, and all ‘ those schemes for‘ robbery an'd cheat-ln-g the people which should, in the interests of civilisation, have I-been categorised under the criminal code iii 1 the nations where they become apparent. "Success in cornering one product of the land led to the very men on the land, who produce the food supply,‘ being themselves cornered and" shack-I ‘ led by huge COlllblnCs_'of capital. Why it is any more legal to make a peace‘ able producer to “stand and deliver”; with money than with the methods of the old—tilfie footpad needs some explanation. The disaster to. life and property, as well as to civi'lisati»on, of footpad methods was positively negligible compared with the crime, misery, and general destruction of life and morals wroughtby the newer battalions of legalised robbers. They commenced upon that from _whieh all riches spring; land, and everything produced therefrom went up in price,‘ and thus began that upward tendencyi of prices which will never return to the honest level again until the intern‘ sity of trade cannibalism forces upon the people’ a bloody revolution. Ten years‘ ago a noted economist stated that farmers and those who controlled land in the United States were enjoying greater {prosperity by aarbitrary forcing up of prices. The nation was surprised at the resultant wallowing in luxury; but, the writer rem:=.rke‘d, that prosperity did not extend to the great masses of the people. On the other hand, he wrote, indiistr-ial operatives and others have NOT been able; to secure an increase in their incomes to correspondto the higlfer cost of living, and a great cry has commenced] to go up for measures that will reduce the cost of living. He pointed out to the notice of the United,States Gov-U ernment that the terms “supply and demand’ had been ren'dered entirely!

Illoa.lll]lgloS,q by the new trading methods; that they could only make a. collntl‘y** richer ‘by the degree they could be practiced upon other peoples; that national disaster must follow upon a course that could not add one penny to the income of the c-ountry, but only in collecting the nieans of life into a few hands While sowing broadcast tdestifution, want, and starvation amongst the masses of the people. The people have risen from time to time, and. it should be noted that something has been gained on every occasion. Every betterment of popular conditions has been seeufed by strenuous and bitter fighting. Appeals for I‘eaSonalblo means of living have been 1-esentéed and resisted at every point, and H 353 situation is not changed in -our own land at the end of the last session of the present Parliament. The cost of those commo'ditiés essential to health and life are 'l’ifv9.ri.ably going up, audit is really appalling to review the list of such increases and threatened incrcases, that Mr Massey has, during the last, weekor two, promised to bring under the notice of the Board of Trade, The Prime Minister knows that..._lle has furnished the.«Boarcl of Trade A in',the last , week“ or two. with -enough work to’ last. it as many years,-'1

if it were faithfully‘ and honestly accomplished. It is an the most contemptible of electioneering tactics, for there is not a member of the House that can hope fpr -any good to I'oSlllt from those particula~r t_Jl'om‘i'SOS- It will be noted that -while New Zealand is being expl‘o‘it'ed by Britain, America, Japall, and to a less degree by other countries, our producers are manaclcd by the Shipping -Combine against seeming a fair market rate. We mean that New Zealanders are relegated to the pack that is to ‘be exploited by outsiders, and their unnatural appetite for profiteering can only be gratified by indulging in What we have termed trade cannibalism, because it is’ purely a. process -of devouring each other as ~opportunit7y presents. and does not add anything to the national stock of loot. It is the mutual outcome of dishonestly high profits attnacting the people from legitimate labour into selling something. Trade robbery systems are safe and of a get-rich-quick c'haracter_. and the result is that an undue proportion of the people have forsaken work and production and launched out into barter, and it is only a return to fair trading that will turn the multitude back into chanfiels of life nlore.llonoul'able to themselves, more adv.antageo'us to civilisatibn, and fraught with more real prosperity to the country. New Zealanders could not exploit extraneously, so they have gratified their greed by exploiting each other. New Zealand should have been receiving twopence per pound more for its meat, and -at least sixpence or eightpence more for its wool than has been paid, but whatever has been purchased from Britain or anywhere else has been ‘charged for on the most atrocious profitcering scale. New Zealand producers have been robbed at both the selling end and at the purchasing end. We cannot understand why the Government has stood heedlessly ,by, witnessing the gathering daiiger to society by an orgy of trade cannibalism. in which ignorant greed is revelling, without doing something to organise the strength of the State to secure for our producers and the country what they were justly entitled ‘to. Just in proportion to such folly will the stress of hard times be felt in

years to come.