HIGH PRICES.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1920, Page 5

HIGH PRICES.

THE PROBLEM DISCUSSED. DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF WAR. By Teltjruph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, March 15. In the House of Commons, in initiating a debate on high prices, Mr. C. A. MeCurdy (Parliamentary Secretary of the Food Ministry) emphasised the greatness of the destruction of material wealth during war-time. He pointed out that the hope that 191!) would be a year of work at full pressure had 'been disappointed even in the case of America, which had suffered less through the war than other great industrial countries. He quoted statistics showing the drop in production in America immediately after the armistice, and| pointed out that the number of disputes in the United Kingdom in 1019.involving stoppage of work was greater than in any year since 1913, while the total who 'were rendered idle was a record for over 30 years. The average number of working days lost during the*Var was over 34 million. Mr. MeCurdy emphasised the preponderating cause of high prices was that world supplies were unequal to the demands, and that hitherto there had been no adequate effort on the part of the peoples of the world to make good the material losses during the war or provide necessities for the future. He declared that the system of profiteering was a check upon production, a cause of industrial unrest, and a menace to social and political stability in every country in Europe at present. CONTROL WOT FAVORED. The Government's policy during the past year had been as far as possible to abolish economic control and substitute a policy of close investigation of the question of supplies, cost of production, and profits, followed by an endeavor, in consultation with the trade interests concerned, to bring pressure to bear without the use of compulsion, and, if possible, to reach a friendly agreement in regard to what was a fair and reasonable profit for years of strenuous work. Mr. Asquith described the Allied economic memorandum as an admirable document. Some of the practical proposals in it were welcome, though the belated memorandum appeared somewhat truncatedj arousing a suspicion that the sting in its tail had been amputated by the expert political surgeons in Paris He declared that the sooner Government economic control was abolished the. better, and the same might be said even more strongly in regard to the system of subsidies. He was strongly of opinion that the taxes would be much better expended in reducing the debt than in trying to shelter the consumer from the inevitable burden of high prices. REDUCTION OF DEBT. Mr. Asquith said the Government's policy ought to star! from a recognition of international economic independence, and be directed to the promotion at the earliest possible moment of the whole industrial machinery of civilisation with every reasonable facility which the Allied associated Powers could give. That was the first and most essential step towards the restoration of normal prices. He emphasised the necessity of the reduction of the floating debt, and criticised the growth of the Civil Service estimates. He urged that a world economic conference should be convened as speedily as possible by the League of Nations, and dwelt on the fact that there were still at least two million men under arms in Central Europe and Eastern Europe. He hoped the Allies would urge the new States of Eastern Europe to live peaceably one with another, and not- establish new economic and other barriers between themselves and their neighbors. They should disband their forces and become one great economic unity. If this' was dene it would be an important factor in the solution of the economic problem. Mr f| Asquith warmly welcomed the League of Nations inquiry into the conditions of Russia, and emphasised the need of the restoration of economic relations with Russia and the fullest possible interchange of the great resources of Russia. As long as Britons preserved' the capacity for hard, honest work, as long as free play was given to initiative and enterprise, an open market maintained, and rigorous sleepless economy observed, he had no fear whatever for the industrial and economic future of Britain.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.