The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1920. THE ULTIMATE OF GREED.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3430, 9 March 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1920. THE ULTIMATE OF GREED.

With which is incorpL“/..‘..*/5" “The Taihape Post. ab} Waimaxino - News.”

Mr Massey is a very bold man, the most daring politician of his day; he has discovered that profiteering is not ‘the cause of the high cost of living and the prevalent industrial unrest. Mr Massey has only to issue an edict, or simply state some view, no matter how abstruse and learned, ridiculous and absurd, he thinks somebodyflwill back him up in it, for we cannot do him an injustice by saying he is so lacking in human nature, perspicacity and commonsense as to really think one single individual in New Zealand really believes very much of what he states about the cost of living and pi-ofiteering. What he does say now has reached the known limits of dissimulation, and the ge_neral wonder about what he will say next is rendering him an object of scientific observation, rara avis that is becoming a wonder to experts in the subtleties of language, for it is generaliy allowed that. he is. leading the world in performance of the greatest feats in using his tongue to conceal his thoughts. Though we feel insulted by being told that what is obvious truth has no existence in fact, we sympathise with Mr Massey, for he is in a tight corner, He is asked to perform the impossible; legerdemain has been exploited to fullest possible limits in deceptive art, and still he has to explain away to public satisfaction where the money is coming from, if not from Rrofiteering, that is making New Zealand trading concerns so rich, their accumulations of capital so ‘large, that they have nothing to do with it but hand it back to shareholders. Evidently and obviously the j earnings of capital are at one extreme [and the earnings of labour at the \_other, and it is when these extremes gmeet that this country will awalm to witness a tug of war that will render lthem wise for centuries to co-me. »When Mr Massey tells: us it is “short- ! age” of men. -of labour, that is the cause ,of the “short:'=.ge,"’ of everything else, ihe should explain away the outcry in fBI-itain, and elsewhere, against unernlployment; he should tell us why thou}sands of men of ability who earned, iby their intelligence and energy, com?missions in the fighting army, are !walking the streets workless and in a Estate of semi-starvation. ‘We know "that hundreds of thousands of men I and women are idle because the direc}tors of the industrial game are delibierately “fuzzling the industrial put.” Nothing would be more disastrous to |pl-ofiteering than to spoil the “shortage” in everything that is everywhere being engineered, and so production is getting less and less till only a few are able to buy what is produced. It is a system whereby the liability for the world’s debts is being stupidly, insanely removed from the masses and put upon the few; proflteers are storing up a calamity for flremsglves that is already becoming over ponderous, and itslpresent poise cannot‘ be maintained for long, the law of trad. ing gravitation is strained tc- its limits. Mr Massey surely does not mean that the men left living are incapalffe of earning enough to feed and cltofiie themselves, because such a statement nobody would believe. If he says tlxaf there are only a very few Working }\Vhil(‘, -the very many are living nke Darasites upon the few, growing fat on the blood sucked from the few, we

‘can unpei-stand him. We could under‘stand then why trading companies are ‘watering their capital, or have so ‘much capital accumulated -that they ‘have to distribute it amongst their "shareholders. It is common know'ledge that some companies have watered capital some half-a-dozen times, and then -have the audacity to state ,only 10 or 20 per cent. isbeing earn‘ed. The truth is the few who work are getting the water and the para‘sites are grabbing the capital. But "Mr Massey is only repeating what ‘Lord Inchcape, Mr Cogtes. and the ‘heads of other combines and syndicates state about the world .uot producing enough to live upon, while the, man in the street knows beyond qui'b- ; ble that it is the division of what is‘ produced that is at fault. Directors‘ and managers, self-appointed, are‘ criminally taking seven~eighths.- of the, world’s earnings and throwing the‘ other eighth to be scrambled for by‘ ‘the workers. To say that men can-‘ not produce enough -to l.ive upon is ‘altogether too absurd for belief, it‘ provides its own refutation. Mr Mas‘ sey has advanced an impossible thesis-, and has told the Conference of Chambers of Commerce that if that thesis could only be established much‘ ‘could be done to remedy the cost of‘ living difficulty. No doubt it could; ‘but Mr Massey is becoming unwittingly, unintentionally frank, and he ‘will have to be warned or he will put‘ his foot in the profiteering pie. Mr ‘Massey said——not in precise terms‘that after the malsseschad been drain‘ed as far as possible of their earnings ‘by charging profiteering prices for the ‘ ‘necessaries of existence, then would ‘follow the next turn of the capitalist ‘screw appreciating gold, milking the ‘currency as secure as possible from ‘getting back into the possessi-on of‘ ‘labour, for of course the capitalist. ‘treats labour as a thing, as an o—rdinlary commodity; capital will earn ‘more of the riches -produced, instead of five per cent, it will require ten per cent., while the cost of what is produced will ‘be lower, and, of course, wages will -haveto be lowered to accord with the lowered -cost of livingso that capital may receive more of ‘ what is‘ produced in the shape of terest. Will not the masses see that‘ this immoral scheming keeps the exploitation game, going, Let, us ‘say-‘ that all great civilisations We people‘ of the world have at present any[ knowledge of were strangled to death ' by greed. First it was the class that‘ could offer least resistance that was robbed. and then the cultivaltors of‘ the soil were positively enlsll-aved to‘ keep up the glory, wickedness and‘ glaring crime of the exploiters. Greece ‘ presented, perhaps. the greatest democracy of ancient civilisato-ns, and‘ yet the very canker that is eating at; the heart of our civilisation destroyed Greece. Once free Greeks supported the machinations of greed; the helotsi (farmers) were the confreres of‘ spendthrifts and devotees of voluptuousness, only to be enslaved and‘ reduced to serfdom to provide riches; for capitalists to waste in the unseem- ‘ l'y orgies. which tended to enfeeble‘ and enervate that once great civilisa- . tion more than anything else, and render it an easy prey to their neigh-‘ hours at Rome. Then what caused the; decay of Rome. but the identically similar crime of greed which made Romans the captors of Greece. The old patricians were compelled to‘ share their privileges with exploiting‘ plelbeians; Italian farmers aided the‘ greedy designs of, capitalists, and, to‘ use the words of history, “the acres‘ slipped into the possession of great! ‘capitalists who found it more profit‘ ‘able to "turn them into pz‘-.stnres." Hi the ‘ltalian farmer honourably strove‘ ‘to retain his farm he was exposed to ‘the cmnpetifion of capitalists, who.‘ ‘owning shipping also, preferred to‘ ‘bring wheat. from Egypt rather than ‘allow it to be grown in Italy. Froin‘ ‘the farmer downward the poor be-‘ ‘came poorer, while greed flourished. But far worse than even the nepotism and selfishness of exploi-fers was their‘ ‘ever-increasing luxury and immoral-‘ ity, and so another enfeeble’d and en—‘ ervaterl civilisation passed away as‘ ‘the result of greed. Is the experience‘ of other civilisationg of no value to‘ us? Is there nothing in common be--’ tween what was happening ’in Italy,‘ and with what is happening now‘? Will the victories of Britain help to per-‘ petuate the Empire and race any‘ more than the victories of Rome help- ‘ ed on the civilisation of that day?‘ Enlslavement of the people has‘ bl‘ollßllt the German Empire to thei dust: something similar has made‘ :RuSsl'a a reproach, and the great‘ Anglo-Saxon civilisation is unmistakeably being headed by greed in‘ the direction of semi-oblivion. The‘ old Greek democracy was really a de-‘ mool‘€loY that was never free from the ‘ ‘canker of greed, is our boasted demo-‘ 'Cl'€toY any, more free from that accurs— 3 ,ed life-destroying canker? Are the‘ _Governmeniis' we elect leaning to-l .W:ll‘dS the spread of greed, or towards i the growth of democracy? For -one‘ is the natural enemy of the other. Will Mr Massey “keep his eye on it‘ and let the Board of '.-"rude report. E