A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20280, 24 August 1937, Page 9

A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

(To the Editor.V Sir, —Under the above title Mr Hunter draws a terrible picture of wheat burned, babies starving for milk, etc. May I point out that none of this applies,* or has applied, to New , Zealand. Therefore, Douglas Credit is unnecessary here In that sense. Ho tries to plead that poverty prevented (presumably) foreign nations from getting neces-sary commodities, where- j as during the last few years thooe countries would not allow tHe said articles into their ports. Let Mr Hun i ter try to get butter, cheese, meal etc., into America, Germany, France, i Italy, Russia, or anywhere else, and hp : will soon find out the reason why J there are people going short of these j valuable foods. Billions of Douglas i Credit notes would not give them an ! ounce more of these articles. When the world returns to sanity and free | trade is universal then there will be prosperity and wars will cease, without the panacea (?) of Douglas Credit. I wonder If Mr Hunter knows that on the only occasions In the sixty years of my life, and probably in tho history of the world, that wheat was burned, was merely the result of a series of abundant harvests all over the wheat countries. More wheat was grown than was required. I now put the question to Mr Hunter that "Venator” side-stepped—vis.: Can It be denied that machinery, as applied to cotton from the raw material to the finished article, together with transport (land and sea;, wholesale and retail distribution, has given work to countless millions, and that the making of the machines and repairing them, gives employment to an army of workers? If he cannot deny this, Mr Hunter’s olaim that machinery causes unemployment must be regarded as incorrect and merely put forward as a peg on which to hang Douglas Credit views. Finally, as a result of my "Dream Island” letter, Mr Hunter claims that he has adduced facts, while I am charged with drawing on my imaslna tion. Well, Hr, in my humble opinion. Mr Hunter’s "cure” for the ills of the world is exactly what he charges m< with—lmagination. Mr Masters's letter Interests mr greatly. Later I hope to pen a reply My "dream” was worth while if i! enabled people to get down from the clouds of theory to basic principles, sometimes called tin tacks. I am glad that Mr Masters is opposed to that hydra-headed monster—Socialism. —l am, etc.. W. P. KENAH. i Raglan, August 20.