THE PEOPLE'S FORUM

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 128, 2 June 1938, Page 24

THE PEOPLE'S FORUM

From Our Readers To Our Readers.

PRICES AND THE LIVING STANDARD.

(To the Editor.)

The country at the last election gave the Labour party a chance to redeem the promises made by them. Mr. Xash claims to have done so. One promise was to raise the standard of living without increase of cost by controlling marketing. In every instance where this lia<s been done the cost has been raised to the consumer. It is a crime to sell below a fixed rate, but there is no penalty for exceeding sueli rates. Mr. Xash biage of having reduced the overseas debt by over £4.000,000. ) hat luii- been done by more iniquitous taxation than even Mr. Coates dared propose. When Labour took office New Zealand had a credit of about £24.000,000 sterling in London. Had £20,000.000 of that sum been used to reduce that debt, a saving of £1,000,000 yearly would have been made, which would fully justify an issue of £20.000.000 of irtfiivt-fiee money by New Zealand. How can an adveiv-c exchange be anything but harmful t<. Britain by curtailing our pim-liasing power, and how does Ximv Zealand benefit by paying about 100 |>cr cent over first cost? A statesman would solve this problem and enable si better standard of living to be attained: now that it is more costly, due to heavy taxation and high costs of production and larger margin to the distributor*, local consumption is very restricted. The world has to adopt new methods of international business that will do away with friction that now keeps each in a state of suspicion and lead* to grinding taxation to provide armaments -to destroy the little civilisation that now exists, and from a war that only the concerted action of workers of all nations can prevent. Why has Labour shelved universal superannuation? Is it that civil servant* and politicians would be rated at the same value as the industrial old-age pensioners? If the basic wage ie fixed at £4 why i« not the oldage pension at the same rate ? The 30/ proposed is not enough to pay the rent of a State house, and whether married or single all require a house and all the oomforts. -necessary for the young. Meantime the first dutyNof the Government is to place our exchange rate on a par with the countries we trade with and prevent exploitation of the public by retailers, which in eucli lines ae fruit. whether imported or local grown, is so great that much less is "consumed than is needed. We need to he saved from our friends, for the prosperity Mr. Xash speaks of iis the measure of the success with which they have raided the private purse, and their predecessors were no better. THE ORPHAN.

PEACE AND DESTRUCTION. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. G. Henry when he states that your correspondent "P.H." ie not very well informed on the subject of Russian affairs when lie associates the Russian system with the cause of peace. Apparently the new tactics of Communism, the United Front, League Against War and Fascism, etc., (on the admission of Dimitrov, Manuilsky and Kuusinen. merely cloaks for the fostering of class war) have taken in '"P.H." completely. If Communism is "in the forefront" of the battle against war * why -tlocs Russia maintain such a tremendous army and navy and why does she speak of '"world revolution" and "being victorious throughout the world? - ' Peace to the Communist equals Communist dictatorship under Stalin, that is the aus we:-. If Russia seeks to save the world from the ravages of war, why do her official newspapers print such statements a«* "with Lenin's standard, we conquered in the struggle of the October revolution. With the same standard we shall be victors in the proletarian revolution throughout the world" ("Izvestia," January 21. 1934)? Why, too, did Manuilfiky at the Third International Congress in 193.") say "Our ""party, our people and our country, educated by Stalin, will be true to the ideals of international revolution to the last drop of blood?"' Why, if Communism has done so much for world peace, did the "Pravda" on May 11, 1931, speak of the necessity of starting a revolution in Spain and "getting hold of the soldier masses as one of the means of arming the revolution?" Is not a civil war the worst of all-wars? If Communism seeks to prevent "the ravages of war" why does the Communiet party state "there does not exist for the proletariat any peaceful means towards power" (International Press correspondence. November 5, 1934) ? If Russian Socialism loves peace, why does the official daily of Moscow, the "Izvestia" state that "under the direction of Stalin, the U.S.S.R. is to-day not only a State organised by a party of the' World Proletariat but a State whose power accelerates the destruction of capitalism (February 5. 1935)?"' Are destruction of property and revolution the ways to pesce? The official programme of the C.I.W. speaks of "cpntimioue class struggle after the civil war" (page 48). the 'Daily Worker"' (America) says "Down with the nonintervention pacts" (October 24. 1030). Can "P.H." etill maintain that Russian Socialism contributes one iota to peace in the face of this evidence?

LOANS AND CREDIT. Once again the medievalists have brought to light that early Victorian scarecrow known as "credit in London." The fetish has lost its power. A* Mr. Gatenby points out. our crops in London are our true credit there—not the false credit of the international banker. To bear down our mortgages in London is merely to rob one section of investors in London for the benefit of another. It harms nobody in Xew Zealand. If we wanted to borrow goods and services ; from Britain, or to Usue bonds to pay interest, then tl-e matter of what the London moneylenders think about uwould have an effect upon the burden of our borrowing. But no future Govern- , meat of Xew Zealand will be permitted !.by the people of Xew Zealand further to pledge our birthright. However, we ■ nave accumulated crelits of our own in ' London. To bear our ""stock-bonds'" i there is to enable-lie to buy up our own I bonds at a substantial discount—snine- | where about 10 per cent in -nine cases at 1' the present moment. A«-i-ordinjr to the •"nionnyisnr' of the age. to do so would be ""irood bii?ino«s." i'. B. FITZHERBEKT.

REALISM AND THE LEAGUE. Mr. Chamberlain and his supporters have found in •"realism" a catchword that seems to be proving effective among tho*e whose political thinking is governed by catchwords. Realism is no doubt a safe guide provided it means seeing life steadily, and seeing it whole; seeing not merely some facts but all the relevant facts, and all in their due proportion* and relations; but it is very much otherwise when it means concentrating attention on those visible realities that are temporal, Virile ignoring those invisible ones that are eternal, rmch as the difference between right and wrong, and being so obsessed by the reality of present danger as to be prepared to purchase temporary immunity by the sacrifice of honour and good faith. Even th.»se who scoff at the notion that ethical considerations can have any place in politic* ought to be realists enough to see that there is nothing to be gained in the long run by paying blackmail, as the Saxons found in the matter of the Wanegelt. The pretence that the recognition of Italy s sovereignty over Abyssinia is merely the recognition of a fact, and not a condonation of the means by which , that fact was brought about, will not hold water. To give formal recognition to a thief's right to hie booty i* to condone his offence. In this ca'se, if it is not, what is the use of it? The whole object of it is to secure MuseoliniVs goodwill; are we likely to secure the thief s goodwill by telling him that though we are too much afraid of him to defy hie right to retain what he has stolen we still regard him as a thief? Those who blame Mr Jordan for his courageous protect show their lack of grasp of the tacts. :sew Zealand is a member of the League in its own right, and its Government, like that of any other member State, is in duty bound to advocate at League meetings the policy that it d-ems right, irrespective of what the British or any other Government mkv do Those Xew Zealanders who think it a piece of impudence for Xew Zealand to claim the right to express an opinion of its own suffer from an inferiority complex There must be multitudes in Britain who applaud Mr. Jordan's utterance, just as there are those here who condemn it. It is noteworthy that "Punch." the organ of British middle-class conservatism, has published some scathing satires on Mr Chamberlain's attitude. And whv should Mr. Jordan have kept silence' nierelv because Litvinoff took the same side*? One cannot always have one's in political controversy made to order Mr. Chamberlain has done what he can to make me ashamed of bein-r an Lnglishman; I am g lat eful to" Mr. Jordan for having preserved to me the right to be proud of being a Xew Zealander. MORTOX ALMS

THE GUARANTEED PRICE. Much has been said and written on the guaranteed price, which, in, iality is a confiscated price, for the simple reason that the seller has had np vok-e hi the matter at all, and I feel safe in saymg that this must have been the first time in the history of this fair land of ours that such a deal was put over. The best pay-out we farmers of this country have had for years was last election year, when my factory paid out 12.3 per lb and our costs were down to bedrock. This price, the Labour Government decided, was too low s<. they fixed the price at 12.91<Jd and raised our costs to produce it 33 per cent above the previous year in farm wages, factory and lorry-drivers" wage* and a dozen and one different ways th.it all tall back on the primary producers Ihese jokes, as Mr. Furniss told Mr' -Nash at Hamilton, cost us six millions' and we received £300,000 odd above London prices to pay for it. What great ousine* from our point of view. Now what about the second year of confiscated price? The Government decided to *et up an advisory committee to inquire into costs of production, etc. and state what they thought the price should be. This was a pure waste of money, as they refuse to even nublish this committee's finding. The result could not have suited them. Finally, I understand Cabinet, after a lot of heckling, decided to give us a fraction of a penny above the previous season, being no doubt based on the values ruling on the London market. When we asked how they arrived at this lowprice, they made out a list of expenses to lit, completely leaving out such an important item as depreciation in our herds, as the Minister of Agriculture readily admits that 2 per cent of every 100 cows go out of business every yeaV through such diseases as mam'itis. sterility, abortion, etc. To rear our own replacements on the farm for the herd would be impossible without sacrificing some of the exorbitant price per lb of butterfat allowed for pigraising. Another item of interest in this bill of fare was the £5 10/ for our wages for a 00 to 80-hour week, nothing being allowed for Saturday or Sunday work, as against other workers' 40-hour week. Then we have to listen to such talk a« equal pay for equal services. As this is election year, and according to experts, our butterfat will realise about £3,000,000 above this famous confiscated price, Mr. Savage says we will get all that is in it. What a sudden change of front! Surely this is not the cocksure gentleman we have grown to know so well this last few years? Has this change been brought about as a. result of the municipal elections and the sad tidings of his M.P.'s having hectic political meetings in their country constituencies ? What about the thousands of tons of our butter sold on the local markets here, far below its value in markets abroad? This is quite a new one put over us by the confiscated price, inaugurated by the Labour Government. Will we ever see this loss made up? I don't think so. Little wonder our Prime Minister state that the guaranteed price is not all that it might have been. Our Australian brothers receive a higher price for local market sales, as the powers that be realise how essential their welfare is to the country as a whole. Xo wonder many of them are receiving I/O per lb as against our 1/1. In fare of the above facts, is it any wonder when making comparisons in prices. Mr. Xash always harks back to the worst years j of: a world-wuN depression. 10;»2-33-34. ;to compare with years of prosperity i since. What an admission of faiure! HIKURAXGI.