"MUDDLED CONDITIONS"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 149, 28 June 1929, Page 8

"MUDDLED CONDITIONS"

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Your correspondent, "One Pound Buys Eight Shillings' Worth of Goods," has evidently taken me up the wrong way when I am made to say the Labour Party is responsible for the muddled conditions that exist to-day. The article under consideration was written on the strength of the references made by the leader of the Labour Party of New- Zealand when congratulating the British Labour Party—a party which stands for State and municipal ownership, or what they term public ownership. Their slogan is not the abolition, but the stabilisation of profit and interest. My reference to world conditions was «made to draw (if possible) a lucid reply as to how such a .specific as nationalisation was to overcome such conditions. Your correspondent then reminds me of what I know and what I don't know, but he does not attempt to throw any light upon the subieet. Let me quote two more gems. Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, in "Socialism Critical and Constructive," writes in chapter 7: When Labour uses capital and pays it its market value, property is defensible. Messrs. Arthur Wheeler and Co., of Leicester, stock brokers, urged upon their clients the desirability of nationalising the mines, from their point of view as shareholders. Their words are instructive. The colliery shareholders would receive from the purchaser (i.e.), the State, new stock instead of their original holdings. The industry I would be guaranteed by the. whole taxable capacity of the nation, hence the new stock would be of the same nature as all giltedged stock, with both capital and interest a Government obligation (a distinction without a difference). Our friend will now be able to draw his own conclusions as to why Labour advocates State capital, while on the other hand capital patronises labour. "This is the financial assistance he requires," and, may I say quite on a par with all the other sloppy sentiment that emanates I from the same source. When will these I Labour jacks-of-all-trades, who pose as authorities on labour's ills, from the right to work down to .baby bonuses, realise that their cure is as bad, if not worse, than the disease. Let me remind your correspondent such loose thought always presages muddlement, and for that reason, since he would have me say so, I will affirm that Labour, not only in the Old Country but also in this, has to take its share in the process of that muddlement, which is greatly responsible for the disparity of the exchange values he quotes.— I am, etc., JAS. PURCHASE.