The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. MONDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 1920. THE ETERNAL PRICE PROBLEM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3571, 6 September 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 1920. THE ETERNAL PRICE PROBLEM.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News” '

The price that butter is to be .sold at in this Dominion alter the close "of the present month is occupying the attention of workers’ unions from the North Cape to the Bluff; "The subject is being discussed in almost every provincial and city newspaper and there is no problem of the moment that is attracting half the .attention that the problem of butter-.price is. It is not at all to be wondered at that workers should meet after their days toil to endeavour to straighten out that game of cross purposes in the cost of living that is now the chief cause of alarm by the wives who have to. make award wages buy the food and clothing that are a necessity if the family is to be kept in health. A : rather pertinent writer in one newspaper states that Mr Massey ha<j every kind of consideration for the masses of the people before the general election, and lie ‘would .on no account allow butter to go above twenty-pence a pound an New Zealand, whatever the export price might be, but‘ the elections are over now, and, consequently, Mr Massey has no. qualms of conscience about the price going to three shillings ;a -pound, or even higher. Viewing this opinion ,seriously it is' apparent the wages question is again going to prove a very dangerous threat to r-the industrial peace that has been fairly' consistent up to the present time. If, as now seems certain, butter does advance,, to three shillings a pound iu this Dominion, there will, of course, be a rise in all < other dairy produce to bring it to- the same degree or remuneration to the dairy-farmer that the production of butter may be. Milk now at sevenpcnce a quart will probably not be less than a shilling, and it is difficult to see how New Zealand babies a fro, going to be much better situated than European babies unless the level of wages is again increased to meet the several increases in cost of living other than those in milk, butter, cheese and other dairy products. It is fatal to peace and contentment to disregard the extreme seriousness of the leaps and bounds upwards the cost of merely keeping bony and soul together of the working classes are taking in alarmingly rapid succession. The Workers, from their discussions, and from what is ax>pearing in newspapers, are no less conversant with the commercial aspect of the question than those commercial trusts, combines and middlemen are, who are making enormous profits, and dishonestly gathering the riches into fheir own garners that should be fairly distributed amongst those who make them. It is impossible to hoodwink the worker of the present day in any i commercial matter, and the man, corporation or trust that attempts it is merely sharpening the labour weapon against himself Amongst the ranks of labour will be found a greater percentage gf men well-versed in economics than in, even, the commercial class, simply because the latter only

trouble about that aspect of econom-

ics that has any bearing upon ma-K*ng all that is possible to make by the devious tricks for defeating the na tural laws of supply and demand. Natural laws of supply and demaud have, in the new teachings of commercialism, given way to commercial artifice. “Bulls’” and “Bears” in commercialism now nlake the markets just what they want them to be. The American Meat Trust carried this aspect of the economies of commercialism too' tar in their own country, and the American Government, scenting the danger of revolution to follow, gave the “Big Five” notice to quit, and they had to go. It is of extraordinary significance to note where that I Meat Trust went to when virtually turned out of their own. country as a menace to public peace. Where would they go but to such countries in which the Government of the day was offering the greatest inducements for successful Trust manipulation? Of course, they established themselves in New Zealand, and so far have done very well out of the simplicity and docility of New Zealand people. They have got to wanting Government permission, to erect their own freez ing works so that their operations of Bullying and Bearing might be carried out to the full in accord with the commercial methods they live by; but even New Zealand farmers were not unconscious of the new danger, and they held meetings and passed resolutions against permitting the real “Simon Pure” Trust tricks getting control of them and of their means of living. It is probable that the efforts of farmers to induce the Government to clip the wings of a commercialism that puts them within the danger zone will be successful, but will the meetings of the workers, and the newspaper controversies in connection with the butter scourge be equally successful with the Government, and if they are not what will .ho the result upon industry and society generally? 'For it must be realised that the breaking strain is at; this moment within measurable distance. And if Workers’ meetings do not have the same, hearing and considerate attention from the Government, why is it they do not? By the rules of party Government that interrogation is easily disposed of, hut such explanations if persisted in simply mean nothing more nor less than an added serious danger to party government. Party government will not bo tolerated by the masses' of the people if it, becomes nothing more to them than a system of commercial machim cry for taking from them the means to live in comfort. .First one essential article of food supply is placed beyond the reach of . the workers’ means, then another, until the, pinch is felt and Conciliation Courts, Arbitration Courts, Strikes and Go-Slows become the vogue, and the country meanwhile is losing the markets 'if has cost the- taxpayers millions fro secure and build np. Now it is butter aud dairy products that is the burning cause of trouble, to-morrow St, will bo something else, but no sooner than one increase is disposed of, invariably by increase of wages all round, than another increase of wages becomes 'due. In the comr"' cial scheming to rob this Dominion of the markets it has built up at an enormous cost New Zealand meat Is occupying an exceedingly parlous position, for while reports from Britain state that meat is still being retailed at as much as three shillings a pound. New Zealand farmers are offered sixpence advance with a guarantee of ninepence, and there is a slump in the visible price of wool. This subject cannot be exhaustively discussed in a newspaper article, but producers, and workers have no excuse for disregarding the fact that they are both the victims of commercialism, who ther they think it infra dignitatem to admit the fact or not. Workers aud farmers are lured into an internecine antagonism that they may be more easily duped by united, organised coramercialist trusts and combines. Are farmers such imbeciles as to imagine that natural laws of supply and demand arc the cause of the great fluctuations in. the price of their products? Will, or do. they not realise that commercialists treat them as mere things , to be manipulated, and that shortage of supply is simply brought about by cornering when products are plentiful and cheap> to be sold when cornering of supply has reached the zenith of the purpose for which it was effeevd? Whether they do so or not they are the willing or ignorant tools in the hands of the commercialist artificer. To-day there is a demand for meat and for wool and next week there is a' disastrous slump, despite the fact that there is no falling off in either the retail price of meat, or of the price of woollen Clothing, but on the contrary that the farcical cento-, tions of the laws of supply and demand are unnaturally making meat and wool unprofitable to the growers, while the worker consumers are hav-1 ing tTSe. retail price increased out of j their reach. Butter and cheese dogs,) like meat and wool dogs, 'will *ravo

their day and then the inevitable slump. To right the wrongs of commercialist market ragging a “Joseph” parliament with a coat of every conceivable political party colouring, but honest withal, is needed. The famine engineered to bring .about high prices must be made impossible if industrial and social peace is to be maintained, and farmers are not to be plundered until they become as poor as the proverbial Job. Butter price? may go up to three shillings in this land of butter production, and no one can blame the farmer for taking the price that is offered to him, but will the people submit to a principle which means nothing short of privation and suffering, if not starvation in many cases, that modern commercialists may become a race of millionaires?