PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20274, 17 August 1937, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents, whose letters are welcome, but for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper nan.es as a guarantee of <?ood faith. Unless this rule is complied with, their loiters will not appear.

WHAT IS JUST AND UNJUST.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—lt seems to me that at the present Juncture of our national affairs the following paragraph from Aristotle's “Politics" should be read with interest. Put into modern language, his argument Is that no act of Parliament can make an unjust act a just one. ‘‘lf the poor, for example, because they are more in number, divide among themselves the property of the rich, is not this unjust? 'No, by Heaven.’ will be the reply, ‘for the lawful authority—l.e., the people—willed It.’ But, If this is not injustice, pray, what Is? Again, when all has been taken in the first division, an.l the majority divide, anew the property of the minority, is it not, evident that, if this goes on, they will ruin the rotate? Yet, surely, virtue is not the ruin of those who possess her. nor is justice destructive of a State; and. therefore, this law of confiscation cannot he just. If it were, all the acts of a tyrant must he just; for he only coerces other men by superior power, just as the multitude coerce the rich.” —* am, ele., A. WARBURTON Ngaruawahia, August IP.

SOCIAL CREDIT.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Some years ago. when the Government Statistician in New South Wales was instructed to report on Social Credit, he at once invited the co-operation of the advocates of that plan. They politely refused. Then the Commonwealth Government appointed a Banking Commission, and they asked the Social Credit advocates to supply the data on which was based the contention that there Is a permanent tendency towards a shortage of purchasing power. The advocates who gave evidence could not supply any figures. The unanimous findings of the Commission may be of interest In this respect. They are—"(a) There are always some people in the community who have not enough money to buy what is necessary for a reasonable standard of living. In till's sense there is at all times a shortage of purchasing power. The total purchasing power of the community is less at some times than at others. In times of depression, for example, tho money income of the community is less, and the number of people unable to purchase necessaries Is greater than in times of prosperity. In this sense there Is, at some times, a shortage of total purchasing power. “(b) The Social Credit theory does not refer to a shortage in either of these senses. It alleges that there is a permanent tendency towards a shortage of purchasing power; in other words, that the economic system can never distribute to consumers all the money which producers have to spend in Ihe course of production. “(c) There is no permanent tendency towards a shortage of purchasing power.”—l am, etc., C. RUSSBRIDGE. Hamilton, August 16.

RETURNS AND COSTS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —-The first year under the guaranteed price scheme ended on July 31, so that the producers now have the information required on which to work out their progress—if any—during that period. When the scheme was first started we were told that the year must pass, for then what were only estimates would he replaced l»y facts and figures; in short, that the acid test would be applied. The time surely has come for these particulars to he produced, and It would he a line thing if the Farmers’ Union would undertake the work. During the year statements varied a great deal'. The Government claimed that the producers were doing well, and the men on the land said that costs were rising more quickly than returns. Judging by the remarks of dairy company chairmen, there seems to be some agreement that farmers who had to employ labour have not come out oti the right side, but that the farmer whose family could provide the labour has made progress. I do not know whether the Union could follow the lead of the Price Committee and find the average farmer, as Mr Sinclair reported; but if not, then efforts must be made to induce the Government to make public the report of lhat committee if only to give the producers a standard by which to judge their own operations and results. It will he admitted that we have heard a lot about rising costs. The whole campaign for compensated prices is due to Ibis movement. Well, could we not get the particulars? I have been told that the Auckland executive produced some striking figures of individual properties and the way they would he affected by the heavier taxation imposed last year. Something along Ihe same lines wIMi regard lo returns and costs for Ihe dairy farms, taking a range covering and those where labour has lo ho employed. would he of value, and of interest. Most of tho people interested recognised at the lime that Ihe argument I about waiting until a complete year I had i-assed was reasonable, and now, i having wailed, we would like to have Ihe figures. During the year the men I ..II the land fear- d that rising costs would absorb any benefit from the ; uuarnnleed prices. They now have j llie figures, and so they know the I position exactly. It seems to me that I llie success of llie effort lo get a difI ferent basis forjlie payments depends j upon it being shown clearly that the pivs.Mil .i u c lias not clone what was I eh. mnl for it. The >ear’s figures ! w ; 'l supply the evidence. - I am. e|c., RETIRED. l l.u.iill on, August 15.

THE MONEY SYSTEM.

A PILGRIM’S PROGRESS.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—Any intelligent person can perceive the insanity of the present money system. Every improvement, national, local or private; every undertaking' successfully accomplished, reflects a debt. Interest has to be paid, year in and year out, to a soulless, non-co-operating money power. The money system of to-day determines frustrations, conflicts and tyranny. Men are unemployed to-day because the use of tools is forbidden them by finance. Conditions in the world to-day, the reflex of an obsolete money system, are too big a tragedy to be laughed off as a joke—in fact, laughter has lost its virtue. It is not a cure for sorrow any longer, but rather it is a neurosis itself. A fight is on. and no one can keep out of it and keep his soul intact. Mass machine production in itself, in of the money power, determines mass consumption, and not. economy forced upon us by an obsolete non-co-operating money system. The machine will end drudgery and useless toil —not work and leisure. Why, the art of the world to-day is the product of leisure—of time snatched from the toil of the world — that toil dedicated to high finance, so as interest may be met. “A high purchasing power” determines not only mass but also individualised production and consumption. Here the craftsman once again comes Into, the picture. As an illustration, for men, tailor-made suits; for women. Jumper's, the product of a skilled hand-knitter. This applies with equal force to foodstuffs—a demand for pedigree fruits and cereals. Thus agricultural art is revived, and so one could go on quoting. The triumph of the machine means plenty for all. It also determines the extinction of a ruthless money system.—l am, etc., HARRY WOODRUFFE. Auckland, August 15.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In the course of his long life, the pilgrim had travelled widely. In his eyes was the wisdom of the ages, and his store of knowledge of men and things was great. Many came from far and near at. the news of his approach to seek his sage advice, and valued it far above that of the parly politicians. On the day I met him ids usual serenity had given place to boiling anger and his long grey beard quivered with rage. He buttonholed me and drew me aside to a quiet corner of Harden Place, and there unburdened himself as follows: “In these last seventy years 1 have looked upon things enough to unseat the reason of a lesser man, yet (not without effort) I have retained my sanity. I have seen milk thrown into tlie rivers while mothers with babes went undernourished. I have gazed on thousands of acres of cotton, ploughed under, on manufacturing plants standing idle while millions went shirtless. Thousands of tons of coffee and of wheat have I seen burned or thrown into the s«a while many lacked bread and in whose homes the nearest thing to coffee that could be afforded was bran and treacle burned black in the oven. 1 A whole year’s crop of rubber and of tea have I seen destroyed, cattle and pigs by the million slaughtered and ! burned—all because the poor had not enough money to buy. “I have seen machinery displace the labour of men and the men left without the means to buy the products of the machine; so .that finally the machine stood idle and the men starved. “In their efforts to cure this strange malady which afflicts a world cluttered up with goods awaiting buyers, I have seen the nations raising tariffs to keep out the goods of other nations, and, crazier still, reinforcing their tariffs by training armies, building navies and air fleets, and seeking markets for their surplus goods by force of arms and all the while their own people were too poor to buy. “Other countries have thought io find a cure by digging up more gold, so that there would be the wherewithal to buy the vast stores of unsold goods, but the gold was all brought to the central hanks and buried again deep down in their vaults and ‘sterilised.’ In other words, they imagined It was not there. This they called ‘sound finance.’ “From one insane action to another, 1 have seen the nations pass, drifting steadily nearer to that greatest insanity of all—war; and I have borne it, borne it patiently”—his voice broke a little—“until just now." The old man paused and muttered in his beard. “Come, come,” I said. “What has happened? Was it all a dream, and you have just awakened?” “No, no,” he replied. His eyes (lashed as lie unfolded a copy of tlie Waikato Times. He pointed to Mr Kcnah’s letter in the public opinion column. “I have been telling you nothing but the facts. Unlike Mr Kenah, I do not need to draw upon my imagination to present my case. This.” he said, stabbing the paper with his linger, “is the last straw. Here is I lie supporter of a system which was conceived. born and reared in insanity, attempting to pour his feeble ridicule on 1 hose making the effort to bring about a belter stale of aff.brs. 11 has proved too much for me. 1 have order ll .l a taxi lo lake me slraight. in a mental home. There ! shall spend the evening of my life among people who appear to lie more rational than those in I lie world outside.”—l am el c U. HUNTER Horsham l»o- ns, Augusi i r».