GOVERNMENT’S WAR-TIME POLICY

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22850, 25 October 1939, Page 13

GOVERNMENT’S WAR-TIME POLICY

to ra* con on ji ras press Sir,—The charge that the Government is taking an unfair advantage of the war emergency' to place its policy on the Statute Book is unjust. No unbiased observer can claim that the Government’s policy is unadulterated Socialism. All the major legislation is based on the legislation of the British Tory Governmentof the Great War. That this legislation happens to be best for the nation as a whole and also for the under-dog is not thq doing of the Labour Party at all; it is a gift of God. To the credit of the Labour Party is the fact that it has brains unbiased enough to refcognise this truth and has brought about legislation that has helned the general man of private en- 1 terprise as much as. if not more in proportion than, the worker., if the chambers of commerce had the guaranteed price, the import and exchange control, and the control of the Reserve Bank removed, in two years they would And. themselves living again under the full disadvantages of the period 1922-1935. Also, they might find that they have not yet accumulated the same reserves to meet it. The hard fact that present productive efficiency is canable of swamping any consuming market in a few weeks must be recognised. Any large break away from th° control of distribution would bring disaster to all. Also.. the system of adjusting economic iniustices -by cost raising is wrong. Price raising is the- foundation of inflation and tells against those who have fixed incomes and those who derive their livelihood from . interest. Where the retail price does not provide an adequate standard of living, the State should assume part of the burden of th“ wholesale price. Any departure from this method will tend to reduce further the value of New Zealand currency. ■ ; . There i= no room in private enternrise for 20.000 nublic works men. The machine has mit these men out of private enterprise. There will have to be a tremendous national deyejonment before nrivate enternrise could absorb nermanentlv 20 000 men. The for the few seasonal men needed nas hardlv started yet. Onlv a verv bad turn in the w?<- could cause the immediate absorption of public works m What is wrong with orivate ej’ter-m-ise to-day is too m" ch competition. There are too man’' heads for existing opportunities.-Youm^. October 24. 1939.