Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1915.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 9122, 23 April 1915, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1915.

EXPLOITATION.

The direct assertion of Mr Andrew Eairbairn that he had supplied the -Foodstuffs Commission with evidence 'to show that on the day that war was declared the . merchants of the Dominion advanced the prices of foodstuffs as much as ; 90 per cent.j in soiue cases, calls for immediate investigation by the Government. The statement is an unequivocal contradiction of the report, made to the Premier by the. Chairman;of the Foodstuffs Commission (MrS Justice Stringer) that tliougli the Commission had invited the public to formulate any charges of exploitation, "no such charges had been brought under the notice of the Commission.'' The issiie is therefore a clear-cut one, and, obviously, only an investigation can decide who is correct. The facts are all in favour of Mr Fairbairn, There is scarcely an article of food that has not been enormously increased in, price, and the situation'with regard to b.utter is little'"less than a scandal. The dictionary gives the meaning of exploitation as ,' 'the successfu] application of labour to any work,": but the commercial interpretation, of the.act of exploiting is much hausher than this; though it is true that the exploiter is an expert in the "successful application" tof someone .else's labour for his own aggrandisement. During the past three or four months various industrial organisations have passed resolutions of protest against the increased cost of living, and the Runanga Borough Council's protest in the same direction-has been endorsed by a number of other local bodies. But, as the "Guardian" pointed out at the time, such resolutions are merely a useless beating .of the air unless they incorporate concrete suggestions for remedying the evil complained of, and not one of them went beyond a general statement that the public were being exploited. In his letter to the.. Premier, Mr Justice Stringer laid some stress on "the fallacy that exceptionally high prices and exploitation are convertible terms," and cites the case, of frozen meat, the price of which is regulated by the export price. But the public do-not live by meat alone, and being" unversed in the art of syllogism as interpreted by his Honour, they can only arrive at a conclusion from "proved facts. If the cost of their daily food is almost doubled at a few hours' notice,' for no' explainable reason, they dispense with analytical propositions and decide that somebody is making hay while the sun shines: Mr; Justice Stringer regards as "impracticable" the suggestion that the Government should impose restrictions upon the export of foodstuffs produced in the Dominion, but that appears to be the conviction- of a pedagogue rather than that" of a social economist. Groat 'Britain, Rus-, sia, and France, not to speak of Germany and Austria, have found feuch a course not .. only not impracticable, but necessary and beneficial. In our case, it-became imperative to prohibit the export of oats and wheat, and probably [when the stocks of butter are down to the lowest ebb, the Government will realise that this commodity, also,, should be placed lipon the list of non-exportables. The country will wait with some interest the outcome of Mr Fairbairn's charge, which practically amounts to an indictment of the merchants of the Dominion who handle foodstuffs. And if an inquiry reveals, that exploitation

lias taken place to the extent he asserts it has, some present reputations for fair dealing will be worth very little to the possessors as a business asset.