The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1920. ANARCHY VERSUS ABUNDANCE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3411, 16 February 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1920. ANARCHY VERSUS ABUNDANCE.

With which I'l3 incorpg',_2tuu. “The Taihape Post. 2:} Waimarino News."

From speeches in the British House of Commons, following upon the opening of the current session, it seems questionable whether the gl‘o'3:f- war is yet won by the Allies, although undoubtedly lost by Grermany. or the Contral Powers. Acknowledged great Statesmen have expressed their views in all seriousness, their utterances being free from any political -taint. discovering the extreme gravity C: the situation. One stresses the grave economic. dangers within the Empire; another the menace to peace from unsettled conditions throughout Europe and the Near East; another urges the Government to take ‘a long—sighted, statesmanlike view. and protested that therc was no hope of a sound economic future for Europe unless an immediate commencement was made of lZ1“.1d8 with the new States in Central Europe, and Mr Lloyd George goes so far as to make it quite clear that unless radical changes are soon brought. about the condition in Britain will be. little, less bearable to Britons than are conditionsin Germany to Germans. He urged upon the House of Commons with much feeling “that, conditions in Europe were serious; that dangers were not all in Russia; that they were at Home, in England and in the Empire.” He said: “I speak with knowledge and with apprehension; I warn the House that there is only one way to fight the things that may happen; we must fight anarchy with abundance.” The House of Commons loudly cheered this statement of the situation. His words, equally with the rest of the Empire, and with the whole world, coricerir New Zealanders and all Australasia. “Anarchy can only be fought with l3.bundance.” The British Prime Minister and British Statesmen and ordinary Parliamentarians, have realised that fire and sword do not quell anarchy, but rather ereafepit; they have seen and been convinced of the futility of trying to eliminate anarchy, in the form of Bolshcvism, from the United States by spentling -huge sums of money in mastering it and depor-ting it. The United States is not appreciably reducing the volume. of Anlarchy within its borders, for as deportees move one way streams of anarchists flow in from other directions. Mr Lloyd George and Members of the House; of Commons have had it proved right up to the hilt that Ulabundance” is ‘the only potent weapon in conquering anarchy; in other words, anarchy is’ the Outcome, the offspring of proflteering, Of 11 condition of semi-starvation, Of a state of public: life in which there is, not insuflicient for the proper feeding and health of the masses, but =fh'a.t necessaries of life and health are prevented from reaching the masses by the inhuman greed. of a class evolved in presentday .-,omme.rciallsni. “Ammdlzlnce” is the one. the only specific to cure the eaiicer of anarcliy with Which the people of the, world are threatened.‘ . It must not be thought that the war is responsible for the evil

§d3.VS the masses Of the people have Efallcn upon, it has 11101-ejy accentuated ‘that evil with a new crop of oppol._ i fllllities and excuses for trade robbery. that in countries producing raw mater‘ials and food there would be an ab. 501100 Of “Wlls -and sequentially, of 3D€ll‘ChY- There undoubtedly would he were it not for the fact that Prices are fixed on those ruling in markets where demand is greatest. Judging by the -growth of anarchy in New Zea. land: ‘3011317'511‘0Cl with the increase in Briltaiir, America, and other "places, there is the same urgent need for “3-bulld3n‘39” in this country as there is 0lS0Wh91'0; despite the fact. that our 10giSla‘l01‘s see no real occasion to call Parliament: together to consider -the situation. Whatever may be said to the contrary. Parliament has been invitcd to a pleasure trip, for no person with ordinary intelligence can be riiadc to believe -that a butterfly visit of a few hours at one place, and a day or -two at another, isgoing to cnablcany one of them to acquire more than a cursory idea of what life and industry in the Islands amounts to. New Zealanders are positively fooling with those conditions which -the British Prime Minister states, to the British Parliament, are serious, and about which he warns Members there is only one way of Combating. ‘Widespread anarchy within the Empire. must be fought with “abundance,” everything else has been =tried, even to deportation, and it has failed. If commercial history ig‘c‘onsultc'd it will be seen that the cause of anarchy; which Mr Lloyd George rcgarlds as the acc.ompanime.nt of pl'ofitcel=ing,and abnormally high cost of living, is traceable to a. commercial system which produced syndicates, -trusts, combines, corners, and all other forms of anarchy-producing hotbeds of comnicrcial jugglery_ It is easily seen that with l}l'lc"g1‘O\Vl3l1 and increase of such huge trading organisations the cost of life necessaries commenced to go up‘, then came the clamour for wages tl:la't. would enable ‘the masses to purchase them, and ever since lherc has been a life and death struggle, in which “millions have succumbed to starvation, and when the Empire called upon its men half were found physically unfit owing to want of food to keep ‘them in health; commercialism was starving the Empire to death, and the Wal"Wfls a blessing in that it discovered the drift to Empire oblivion. ".l‘he United States may -be regarded as the home of the most conS('.lollColCSs commercialism;, and it is from that country the profitecring Juggernaut commcnccd to roll over all civilised peoples. ‘To-day, however, there is no greater trading criminality anywhere than in our own Empire, and the British Prime Minister has solemnly warned the House of Commons that in. place of “shortages” "there must be “abundance.” Will Mr Massey note the change in stemming the ‘terrorbringing wave of anarchy and replace “sllort'agc” with “abundance” in his specific compound for the cure of industrial and social affections‘? As we have stated, the war was only an opportunity for further increasing the cost of living, "for in only a very few years prior to the war cost of living had incrc'as.e!d by one hundred per cent. While these high prices benefited a few, they reduced the purchasing power of wagc—carners by an &1110U11t corresponding with the increase. which was inercly an inflation, an appreciation of commodities engineered in much the s'_anlc. way that appreciation of currc-ncy is brought abou-i. Not by natural shorlage. either, but by 3“ artificial sliortagc, or an engineered shortage got by cornering. English wheat in 1894 was 22/10 per quarter: in 1909 it was 37/. Meat went up in :1 similar ratio, owing to the operations of .-'\nlcl'ican pacl«:cr.<. Tex-Tiles Went hp in price just in proportion as industries were monopolised. It was urged that costs of production and marketing would be appreciably reduced, making the cost of living less by doing away with the small man and replacing him with huge -trade organisations. American cotton in ]899 was thrcepence. in 1910 it averaged about eightpcncc. In the same period’ wool had nearly doubled in price; in fact in about: twenty years prior to the war the cost = of living had. increased by 100 pert cent, or thcreabout. Starting from this ! fact as a foundation in examining the! causes of widespread anarchy, surprise may well be cxpl'eSsC'd that anarchy is not more rampant than it is. There are grounds for assuming that British people submit to positive starvation. rendering them. unfit to bear arms in (l(‘fCll(,‘(l of their Empire. I'aEl'loi‘ than rise against th._a vulture class who have been exploiting them. Lloyd George ’s| grave warning that “dangers are notl all in Russia; that they are at home,‘ and that they can only successfully nc foll§ht with a.l.)1lTld.'lll(3() “us? have early attention l