TRAITORS AT BOTH ENDS

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 47, 24 August 1917, Page 6

TRAITORS AT BOTH ENDS

•"He should be hanged!" "They should be shot!" These sentiments, which may be regarded as synonymous in effect, punctuated the Prime Minister's remarks in the House on Wednesday evening. The first referred 1 to, the food-profiteer, the second to the stormy petrels of industrial labour; and'thus the social pests at either end of the scale ■of living were brought under the lash of righteous anger. It is well that the Prime Minister realises that lie is as much the protector of the community from the profiteer as from the promoter of I.W.W. principles. The prime duty of a National Government is.to hold the balance fairly between all sections of the community, so that labour shall not bo disabled by prices nor capital by taxes, "but so that eacli will work energetically' in its own sphere, co-operating and •sharing on equitable terms the common burden. A War Cabinet' is not required to adopt partisan policies, but it is in duty.bound to prevent the mass of the community being bled at both ends. A sense of this predominating principle must, we think, lead fair-minded men to defend the Board of Trade against such criticisms' as those based on the'butter ,lavy. Critics' who ba.v,e taken the oppo-.si^Mijd*~-to4t.is r ,who- J)*y.© condemned

tho Board for inactivity—may note the Prime Minister's statement that members, when they read its report, will be astonished at the amount of work the Board has done. We hope tliat t)^ report will be laid beforu Parliament in its entirety. . Our present impression is that the Board of Trade and the National- Efficiency Board have both done invaluable spad-e-work; and the onus of giving it legislative effect, in a manner consistent with practical politics and economic justice, rests on the National Government.