THE REAL POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 311, 10 June 1915, Page 4

THE REAL POSITION.

An American banker, ;jii-1 vcliini-ni ironi l!erlin, where tie resided in the fashion ahie residential qtsiirfcr. «iv< his homelinlil budget was not more ti:a» per ci'ii!. higher on March 10 than it: \va> i;u .Inly 111, I 1 !. Vara lis -■ I a ] il<> artich s of it)inl cost itKiV' 1 . tint lumll.v one is beyond. the reae!i of i I u- ordinary middle-class householder. or even of the ImmbW classes. Everybody must liave a. bread-ticket, but, then ■ is no shortage of bread, JI is family of four and two servants inner used the -whole of their ticket for the week, and a cable tlifi other day supports this by an official statement that there are ample supplies of flour and {train in Germany, and that the maximum prices are to be reduced next week. Trade did not seem to have materially declined, and tile coll'ee bouses, the restaurants, the. theatres, the concert halls, the picture palaces and other establishments dependent on public patronage seem to be doing as well as eight months ago. Tt was hoped for some time that Germany might be hit by a copper or petrol shortage. TVif the German chemists are making petrol ,substitutes from potato spirit and coal. And as regards copper, J)r. Ernst Koaii. an authority of as reliable a character as it is possible for a German to be, stated the other day that "Germany bad a million tons, the result of importing annually, for five years before the war, 200,000 tons more than it consumed." Also, the London Times said recently : Leading merchants have 110 doubt tint large consignments of copper ore have i'i led <: i :; m 11 y throu;. h neutral cou'iirion." The Genuaii banking machine, vhicli ||.l . enabled the (:«>, ; umcnt to raise from the people two war loans totalling .C7SIMM*MHtO. is just as Socialistic and nearly as efficient as the German war machine, How are forces like these lo be overcome without stupendous c(Torts? For the sake not only'o! ike mm •:> the t/enckc. but of those ■„k.i will never light ; a :d ' ,v :1c nilke ate p:o:;i of I'ieii and |'.:i noi:", 'his re : e t :i . .. ■ ■ .el -l !y bri. War. kso doalit Lk.;' ■ ■ • ■ :r. ; e ■ under in the long run—anything ('!■-■>

would be unthinkable. The danger of that attitude of jaunty confk}6nce whioli is so prevalent is that the German resistance may ho enabled to last for a very long time. Tfco Bulletin plead* for a number of measures —for the tenlfacts in the way of news, for tho organisation of the workers in such a way that each man could give the best that is in him to the State, for conscription at least during the progress of the war —in short for a number of ttrenuo'.s measures fitted to tho violence and unusualness of the times. Before we are finished with our great task, even the.se bold measures may bo taken. Anything rather than that the diabolical Huns should prevail or oven r unpunished for their great crimes against humanity.