The Daily News. WEDNESDAY. MAY 17, 1911. THE SHOUTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 303, 17 May 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY. MAY 17, 1911. THE SHOUTERS.

An earnest ami enlightened Australian lias ri*en in his place to demand u Royal Commission. In the present .state of Ausj tralian polities, should he be eniphatic--1 ally branded ''Labor," the State may lu-h into the breach and spend several thousand pounds in order to explain the obvious to this gentleman. He wants the Commission to tell liim why, although wages have ''gone up"—that is to say, the wages of organised tradesmen —the price of living has leapt skywards also. While the Commission sits it might find out why water will run down a hill, why fire burns, and why Monday follows Sunday. It is so unnecessary to explain to the average person that the goods which co-t. more to buy than formerly will be I sold at an advanced price, that the playing of a solemn, farce to demonstrate the fact must appeal to everyone as a peculiarly futile way out of the difficulty. As Australian Governments are keen on finding new methods for "controlling trade," and since minimum wages are defined by law, and since the State prohibits persons from employing unbranded persons, the State might interfere cv.en further. Nothing could be more obvious to the "worker" than that no one outside organised coteries should have any rights. Therefore, it is the duty of the State—any State —to see that the worker has the very highest price for his work and that lie should pay the very lowest price for the things he buys. In order to regulate prices and profits, appoint a Royal Commission! A Royal Commission by solemn resolution will be able to regulate the law of supply and demand, arrange public ambition, do away with skill in buying, and remodel society so that everyone docs exactly as he is told, except the poor suffering worker, who may do as he likes. The futility of discussing the reason for advance in price in consonance with the advance of some wages is obvious, but the cure for this very natural state of things lies to the hands of organised labor. Labor obtains—and it has a right to obtain —as high a wage as it possibly can. If prices go up in consequence, Labor should do its own supplying, be its own business man, the' regulator of its own prices, and its own landlord. Labor finds it impossible to make the whole of society see through its own glasses, but as it justly co-operates to get as much as possible for its work, it might as justly co-operate to got what it considers its money's worth. Only one example of such co-operation oceurs to us at the moment. The brcadmakers of a \"ew South Wales town, in wholesouled co-operation, decided to run the bread business "on its own." It would show that the hated capitalist was grinding the faces of the poor. When it had nice control of the business, it. was a '■(nr-!.'' although it did not call itself sueli hard names—and up went the price of bread to such an extent that the people refused io recognise, the genial Iru-tmongers as their friends, and a boycott c-nsned, to the destruction of that beni'voieiil corporation. When the angry per-Mi who demands Royal Commissions in order to obtain relief from a perfectly natural state of affairs, he talks about '■' increase of wages." The phrase, liow-

ever, has a limited application. Wages in organised trades have increased, but this has had the effect of lowering wages in those occupations where workers for various® reasons cannot be bamled together. Thus, if an employer was bound by law to increase the wages of his "horny handed" helpers, ho would naturally carve into the wages of the employees whose ideas and work gave the "horny handed'' their jobs. A huge proportion of the workers of Australasia have not received increases of wages, and are therefore very much worse off than the "horny handed" who do all the roaring and make all the demands. The topsy-turveydom that has resulted from the more or less dissatisfied march of Labor has cheapened the work of the thinkers, the initiators, and the professional element. Skill and initiative are less considered than hoarse-voiced ''organisation." Australasia weighs brains and tickets in the balance, and pays more for tickets every time. Australasia wonders why no one is left but the shouters, the others taking their brainware elsewhere when cash and occasion offer.