SERVICE IN RELATION TO VALUE

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 14, 16 July 1921, Page 4

SERVICE IN RELATION TO VALUE

Eeferring to " the double load of debt which the war had left us," Mr. A. A. Ross, Provincial President (Auckland) of the Farmers' TJnion, pointed out in The Post of 22nd June that this load had been borne " with ease " during the era of high px-ices. But—

With prices at approximately the prewar level, it would be a double load in reality; no adjustment could lighten it, and nothing but hard work and more production of saleable commodities could meet the situation.

To borrow the cheap pound in fat years, and to pay interest in the dear pound in lean years, is a handicap without compensations, unless the compensations take the form of a cheapening of other services. From the standpoint of the farmer—and especially the farmer who paid top prices for his land, or who raised big war-time mortgages —the compensations should take the form of cheaper labour-cost in the handling and- manufacturing of the goods he sells arid the goods he buys; cheaper -intermediate or " middle-man '* charges (to secure which is the prime aim of farmers' co-operative movements for buying or selling—movements that, Mr. Poison fears, are irritating the urban business world); cheaper Governmental services (which means less taxation, or more results to show for it); cheaper freights (particularly shipping freights) and cheaper handling charges of export products generally. " Whereas," says Mr. Hugh Morrison, "it cost in 1914 ljd per lb. of mutton to kill, freeze, ship, and sell in London, to-day it costs Ud."

Cheaper laboui'-cosit is not the same thing as lower wages. If higher wages meant more work done, few would object. But where the work per man per hour is less than the pre-war figure, while the payment is much greater than the pre-war figure, a change ia inevitable. It may be made voluntarily, but in any ease it will have to be madej because losses; that can be

borne when selling in a high market, mean bankruptcy when selling in a low market. The actual and relative losses of efficiency on the waterfront and elsewhere will certainly not pass the economic test that is now beginning to operate. As to cheaper buying and selling by means of co-operation, the farmer would be foolish to desist merely because he may be treading on certain business people's corns; let him think solely for the safety of his own corns, and act accordingly. Concerning " cheaper Governmental services" a great deal might be written, but the position may be summed up by saying that as the interest charges cannot come down, the administrative charges will simply have to; it is no use shutting eyes to the fact that the portion of Government administrative expenditure that is squeezeable will have to be squeezed. Lastly, the freights item raises the question of an independent line of refrigerated shipping, with the State perhaps holding a partnership interest. If farmers' co-operation is already exciting hostility in urban business circles, how much greater will be the hostility, in.the great business world of organised private shipping, to a competitive adventure comparable with the Commonwealth's ! Once again, the chief concern of the adventurer should be not his opponents' corns, but his own. If David can hold his own with that Goliath, good luck to him. He ought at least to.have the sympathy of some of the several breeds of Socialists. Is the force of economic necessity about to have the paradoxical effect of making the farmer the standardbearer of State-subsidised seatransport as against private enterprise, and of the co-operationist as against "business" interests? Even conservatism,i when it finds itself on the wrong side of a ring, may adopt Socialistic forms. But perhaps the ring will be wise in time.

It would throw more light on the farmer's position' if some approximate statistics were available to show what proportion of farmers are farming land which they owned before the big rise in prices after 1915. A man who bought before 1916 should be better placed than most of the newcomers, unless he has speculated unduly upon his enlarged credit. Also, in the matter of cheaper services, the farmer must have benefited in no small amount by the recent falls in prices of materials; and this benefit should tend to increase, and may be accompanied „in due time with some measure of interest-relief. It is noteworthy that the farmers quoted in The Post of 22nd June made no complaint against the banks, and recognised the need of bank pressure to check speculation. On the whole, their demand for better services from the shipping and labour communities is just; it has behind Its not' only the farmers' need, but the country's need. The day of doing less work for more, pay, is over. The pendulum, is swinging back, and '■ people must attune themselves to its reverse action.