The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1920. BREAD AND RAILWAYS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3429, 8 March 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1920. BREAD AND RAILWAYS.

With which its incorpc;-aw‘ “The Taihape Post. an 7 Waima’xAino Nawu."

The cost of living problem is again looming large and dark as a menace to industrial peace, the two present disturbing factors being the refusal of bakers to bake bread, expressing a determination to close the doors of their bakehouses and shops if they are not allowed to charge what they like for bread to the consumers, and the dissatisfaction of Irailwaymen with the report of Judge Stringer, the president of the board appointed to go into railwaymen’s grievances. The price of wh.e'a"t, flour and bread problem has become so complex that it is not easy to determine where the largest pro-fits filter out, whether to the farmer, the miller or the baker, but appearances are that the miller has, by far, the biggest meshes in his sieve, which leave little that will not go through to be passed on to the baker. The increase over the price of bread before the war will be from 75 to 100 per cent. Unfortunately, the consumer cannot turn round and tell Judge Stringer and Mr Mas'sey that he will live without. bread, and it is ,well that he shouldnit, for he would Every soon lack the physical ability to iearn anything else to live upon, and iit is just there that the consumer is {at a distinctly unfaifadvantage, in {the struggle for existence; it is there ‘that the worker and the masses of‘the ;people are very heavily handicapped. It is not surprising that railway work‘ers of the second division complain. rather bitterly at the outcome of the inquiry into the justness of their appeal for an increase that will enable them live as well as before'wa‘r was declared. Of course, if profits on trade of all kinds are levied unfairly by employers and owners taking sufficient to rapidly raise them to a position of opulence, even if they fail to reach the coveted millionaire goal, some party concerned must go short. In the railway service there are first division. subdivision 1, men receiving from £7OO to £3OOO per annum, only three receiving less than £llOO. In sub-division II salaries vary from £BO for junior clerks, to £BOO. The managing section of the Department ab—sorbing so much of the railway income, leaves altogether too little wherewith to remunerate the men of the second division. In Class I of the second division wages run from 10/ to 14/6 per day; this class includes porters, guards, signalmen‘, shunters and suchlike. Class II is chiefly composed of engine-fitters, other trades»men, engine-drivers and firemen, and in that class remuneration varies ifroui 12/ to 17/ a day; drivers I'ecei';'i:lg from 15/ to 16/6, firemen from 12/6 to 13/6. and cleaners from 8/ to 12/. In the maintenance section surfacenien and platelayers are paid 12/ a Gay, and gangers get 1/ per day n.ore. Eight men comprising Class I of subdivision I of the first division receive the same money that pays some 40 engine-drivers. Such a division of the earnings of a public service may be quite in order but it is just a ‘trifle startling to learn that it ‘takes 40 men,

who hold the safetyiof trains and pas_ songers in their keeping during (lay and night, *0 earn as much as is paid to eight men in the highest division. However, that is not the point in discussion; the railwaymen contend that the wages they are paid are not sumcient to keep their‘ families in the same Waythat pre-war wages kept them, and no one can deny that the men have truth on their side. The monthly abstract of statistics was a publication nobody disputed in thej early years of the war, but it is so manipulated at the present time that it is regarded as a gruesome joke, the profiteer alone being satisfied with it; nor does it indicate the increased cost of anything. In Taihape everything that is essential to life, very nearly, has increased in price by 100 per cent. averagely. The suit of clothes that was £5 is ‘now £10‘; other clothing has go‘ne up 200 and 300 per cent. Bread has not increased by 100 per cent, yet, but if bakers get what they demand it will have doubled the prewar price. Tea, cheese, bacon, fresh fruit and vegetables have reached the ‘IOO per cent. mark, meat and butter ?have not yet done so, but there is istrong agitation in that «direction, hit considering that dried fruits have advanced some 200 or 300 per cent., the rdifference in butter and meat is well accounted for. Household ironmongery has soared well above the 100 per cent. extra and the same applies to crockery. In the Monthly Abstract ,the rent given as paid in Taihape is {an insult; in fact that one time use--ful publication is _a now commonly termed the Monthly Prevaricator. with every essential to living r-i.dvanc-Led in price by 100 per cent., with u'nmistakeable certainty ‘that highest prices have not yet been reached by a long way, no sensible person will agree that railwaymen can keep themselves and families fed. and clothed, even indifferently on from 12/ to 15/ a day, and while Government adheres to any such condition trouble must result. It is freely stated in some quarters that one object of high prices and short supplies is to set up a starving process; a process to prevent the masesg of the people from having any food to exist upon in case railwaymen were compelledito strike for a fair wage. There are not wanting :I*.'n3,le indications that this statement may be true, but surely_ more sane computations could be made by Mr Massey and the profiteering gang, of what would occur in such a case, if not, then revolution is being deliberately invited. There are men who have [been in continuous-service of the l":ailway Department for over '3O years, “who are receiving the munificeiit remuneration of 12/ per diem for their work, and there are dozens having ten iyears continuous service at the same wage. The fact must be faced that if Mr Massey and his Board of Trade will allow costs of living to continue to go up, he must pay the public mnployees a wage in comparison. The men are hastening to declare their dissatsfaction with .l‘ild£e Stl'i:“'..9.~‘-I"S findings, and in the ineantiine the [public must await results. “