GUARANTEES FOR ALL

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 13, 15 July 1935, Page 8

GUARANTEES FOR ALL

When explaining Labour's guaranteed price proposal to the National Dairy Conference Mr. W. Nash said that the miner was paid so much a ton; the lawyer was paid for his time, skill, energy, and experience. Why should not the dairy fanner be similarly paid? The inference lo be drawn.was that a fixed price for farm products would just bring them, into line with the present custom governing remuneration for other services or products. We pointed out at the time that this would not be so as the miner was not guaranteed employment or the lawyer assured of clients. The Leader of the Opposition touched on the same question when he told a Dannevirke audience last week: "Any policy which left out of account the raising of salaries and wages could not provide any substantial guarantee to farmers, while it must also be realised that the Labour Party's proposal for guaranteed prices as against a high rate of exchange would involve the control of public credit." This is an admission that what the State does for one section of the community it must do for all. But the obligation if the State gives a guarantee to one section goes further than Mr. Savage suggested. The State must not merely raise salaries and wages, but guarantee them, and profits also—assuring full and profitable employment for all. To keep such a system in balance the State must have and exercise authority in directing and controlling production and distribution in all processes, transferring producers from, say, dairying to housebuilding. If Labour has worked out plans for such a system they have never been disclosed. It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, that Labour has not contemplated allround application of a guarantee and has in fact not got beyond the idea of helping one section at the expense of the rest—though Mr. Savage said it .was "neither, possible nor desirable" to continue this.