A TRUST TRAP.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3493, 22 May 1920, Page 4

A TRUST TRAP.

I:;u'ulel's in New Zealand are .3415‘ W’ ginning ‘to discojver that they are already in {L trust tfap; they first d9‘ manded a free market, then when they found that. what uncontrolled market. -there was had been grabbed by trusts ‘they saw plainly thatthey were asking‘ to be allowed to get out, of the Government pan into the trust fire. -u.r~;\l'assey now plainly tells farmers that a ‘slump in primaz'y’products has set in, and that a hard-time future is bol’ol'e. them. The point; which matters is that which, if taken due notice of, will prevent .-recurrence of such commercialist xrianipulanions. Just as tl'us’c.s "first. manacled’thos'e to whom they -so‘ld-Athei’l“.’wheat, so they just as tightly enmeshed those to whom’ they sold meal, and as they next turned ea'ftention to robbing‘ the wheat farmer, so surely have they similarly commenced scl'ewi;ng' down the meat and wool grower. It is Very plainly disclosed that trus'r's, rings, combines, and syndicates, although springing from a

lhuman source, are the greatest, frightfullest, most merciless, ruthless enemies of mankind generally the world has any knowledge of. They are the enemies of the masses and producers alike, they rob and destroy both, and why producers and masses do not unite to destroy this great orgy that is taking possession of them, body and soul, socially, industrially, and politica.ll_v, is beginning to become past understanding. We have .not over— I 1':1ff;C1 the power of com-inewialisni, nor ihave WC ox'el'd;a\vn the satanic hideousness of its operations upon hurnan life, and what ought to concern every [man at this moment. should be to dis--1 cover as _i’al' as possible the'nature and magnitude of its opel'ation:<. Going to the fountain-head of such hnformativon we learn ‘from Mr C. A. I\:[eCul'dy, K.C., MIR. Parliamentary ‘Secretary to the British Ministry of Food; and Chairman ‘of the British Committee on Trusts, that New Zealand meat-producers Will, when the Imperial requisition ceeases, drop out of the Imperial gmrgatory into the Trust hell. He makes it un-dei-standable that the man who talks -about laws of supply and demand is either. a eonsumate rogue or a hopeless fool. who sliould be put under re*il‘i‘slll»- Thol'o is no such thing, tl-ust.< make their own supply and demand ‘to 1 suiz, their own ends. lilvolution of‘ l’l’it*es and values per medium of com- I petition has pZISS(}LI. H“-ay/, dead for} e\'e.r. “The scientific orgallis:ltion of‘ industry in Tl‘Ll..sts and 'l‘l'ade Com-I hines,” Ml‘ MeCurLly states, “has come to stay, and is indee<'l absolutely ne(:essary it’ the British Enipii-0 is to com-I pole .<.uccessfully wirh 01-gaiiised tru.»-t.<. and ’J7l'zlde Conibines of other c<mn—’ tries. in The race for foreign nlal'ke'ls.l 13111)." >'.'l_vs Mr .\le.Curdy. “the ques-I: wants an answer is’

tion that

not now how are we to gof “*1 Of the Tllusts or I'o.~:f(n'e

lithe freedom of trade, but how are we ‘to Control the 'l‘rust.<' so as to 111-oteet the pvblic from high prices :u1(l prolifeex'.~t.” It man’ not be ('on:~'OliIIf.I. but Mr MeCllr(lv len\'e.s not :1 sl‘V::«‘.o\\’ of rloubt :I'bout' Bl'i.f:lin l';’émn:illg" 21 lzmcl of jllfif as rabid Trusts as ever Anlol'ieo was; he says, “In food, as in every other essential commodity. ‘HIO day of the Trusts has dzmncd for Great Britain as it dawned some years ago for the United States.” He explains that the old order is paS.=.'ill;: away, that competition is already replaced by control, either the control of Trusts or the control of Government. No less an ziuthority than the chairman of the British Committee on Trusts tells Empire producers and workers just where they stand in relaiion to Trusts, and he viftiially says to them, “which control do you prefer,

that of your own Government elected

by universal suffrage, or that of the Trust‘? It was because we saw UlO Trust ogre on the industrial horizon that we have consistently urged farmers t-o insist as far as possible that Imperial control be continued; in fact, we have stated our belief that control would not be relinquished, and it is to some extent gratifying to note that leading farmers in many districts are rapidly coming round to a more sane understanding of the trading position into which the war has caused the world to drift. There should be no doubt -in the mind of either farmer or worker which would prove the most beneficial control. Government or_ Trust, one has to be accepted; Mr McCurdy has oflicially asserted that control has come to stay, nothing else could compete with the control of other . countries. We have the undeniable experience that Government ‘c’ontrol of products results in higher prices to the producers and lower prices to" the consumer; we have also overpowering, irrefutable evidence that Trusts screw ‘down the producer to penury and subjcctvconsumers to an orgy of profiteering. Mr .\l'.eCurdy believes it neither possible nor advisable to destroy trade combinations and Trusts; he considers them necessary ‘to compete with other country Trusts, but he also says they should be under strict surveillance and control by Government, the people must be "protected. The ogre of commercialism, it is authentically contended, has come to stay, but it is only by keeping it caged and well under control. that the other ogre, Bolshevism, can be kept from rampancy of revolution. Let all understa'nd that this Dominion’s Government, as well as all other Governments never needed the whole—hearted assistance of the people more than they do at this moment.