The Daily News MONDAY, APRIL 19. A BREAD FAMINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 70, 19 April 1909, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, APRIL 19. A BREAD FAMINE.

It would be impossible to contemplate, without a feeling of horror, the possibility of a Continental bread famine such as is prophesied in this morning's cable mKi by Patten, the wheat king of the moment, it might be possible that the world's wheat production this year has fallen short of requirements, although there is as yet no oificial endorsement of the fact, and from one reliable quarter, at least, it is otatcd that Patten has underestimated the available supplies. 'Hint which, however, consumers the world over protest against, is the peculiar commercial morality that permits of a man, because he has at his command huge sums of money, creating a "corner'- in tin indispensable article of food and penalising the people. We entirely sympathise with the attitude adopted by the Soulnland Trades and Labor Council on this question, and the fact that even in America, where the methods of the trust are recognised and accepC'd, public indignation is so aroused that the leader of the " cornering '' movement has had to adopt measures for his personal safetv, may have the ell'ect of compelling legislation that will effectually'prevent the repetition of such nianipulation of the food market. So intimately interwoven are the conmeicinl interests of the world nowadays that a corner such as is now being created in America immediately strikes a responsive eiiord in not only every consuming country, but even- producing country as well. Accordingly, although we have yet to hear that our wheat harvest is snort of requirements, prices immediately advance with the artificially created rise in America and London, it is one of the peculiarities of the commercial system that the wage-earner finds hard to understand.

Within the past month we have witnessed the spectacle of a big diop in the. price of our butter on the English market, but so far the local market hasfailed to take cognisance of the fact. The merest tyro of economics can understand that prices should be regulated by the law of supply and demand, lie cannot understand,' however, why it should be that a speculator in it foreign country, by adopting methods creating a shortage of available supply and forcing up prices, should render it necessary that prices in another country, where supplies are abundant, be forced up in sympathy. While the advance may be good iwwa for the wheat-grower, it will have precisely the opposite effect on wage-earners, particularly in England. Were there a reasonable prospect that the maximum of the increase had been reached, the workers in the Dominion might view the approaching winter without serious apprehension, but) the indications of the moment unfortunately point the other way, ami there is at least no likelihood of a drop until the quantity of the world's available supplies are known with some degree of accuracy. While high prices are often the cause of good times—or perhaps it would be more correct to say that the one accompanies the ot'ner—it does not follow that a long r.intimiaiire of dear wheat and Hour is good for Xew Zealand, albeit a producer, any more than it is good for Britain. High prices | for bread, which is the staple article of food throughout Europe and America, necessarily'means the curtailment of the workers' 'expenditure on other tood commodities, and the demand for meat, butter and cheese, etc.. must of necessity decline. In this way a sustained inliation of the price of ant- particular commodity is not as a rule beneficial to the man on the land, but only to the speculator.

Til" operations of the wheat " corner in America have shown that the only persons to gain have been the operators of the ••corner." whose enormous profits have been made at the expense of producer anil consumer alike. The producer suffers, or rather fails to make aiy gain from the rise, because the astute speculator lmv* Wheat when it U cheap, and withdraws lift purchases from the Moating market, until diminishing available filiating supplies cause a vise. Pollen is reported to have cleared no less than C7.->o.noO in a single day. most of which must ultimately come out of the pockets of the consumers. At the same tune netiher wheat nor (lour is yet extremely hb'h. but it is feared that the .high wale" mark has not vet been reached.. Tf therefore, wheat still continues to rise, and this country and Australia have it surplus for export, tve may expect to hear of the C.ovcrnnicnt being vigorously urged to assist in preventing mi" excessive inliation of prices., How far a (Internment would be justified ill interfering with freedom of the avenues of trade Is a debatable point of some imviiiLudc. lint litvre is (his to be said in lustilication. that lite food of the people of anv country should i)e conserved. Thai might ca-ily be accomplished by the imposition of a temporary export tax on such a staple commodity as wheat, and has the merit ot liciii"- Ho re unconstitutional than the demand of farmers and builders that heavy export duties should be imposed on Xew Zealand white pine and kauri.