The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1920.

Evening Star, Issue 17482, 13 October 1920, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1920.

It is characteristic of Parliament that it should exert itself almost Racing to the point of selfand sacrifice over a, question Production, that hardly matters. A

proposal to increase tire number of race meetings in the Dominion kept members out of their beds for a night and generated torrents of oratory. It is a proposal which should never have been brought forward at a time like this. Everywhere the cry is.for increased production, and on all sides production per capita seems to be decreasing. Individual effort is said to be on the wane, and the output in certain lines is not a credit to our manhood or our industry. The consequence is that in many of the requisites of life there is a shortage. Attempts to cope with this shortage lead to a multiplicity of. transactions which give a fictitious air of activity. Take, for instance, the house famine. A dozen' or even 'a score of sales, though eveTv time at a profit, represent no real gain, though every party to each transaction may slap his pocket with an air of satisfaction and declare himself the gainer by so much. Money lias circulated; families have done the same by moving round to the accompaniment of furniture vans; but the net result is that precisely the same number of people who sought the shelter of a home are still on the-lookout, ready to rush the first chance offered. The com--munity as a whole is no better off, the only alteration being that in the scramble the price of accommodation soars, and the many are mulcted for the benefit of the less numerous landlord class. In this operation the worker plays into the landlord's hands. Lessened effort in the building trades has made the price per room of a dwelling house something inordinate. Thus the cost of increasing the number of dwellings— the onry solution of the problem—becomes prohibitive, and the shortage bids fair, to continue. The maintenance of a shortage is the profiteers opportunity.. Only now are we beginning to find out, from cable 'messages from all parts of the world and from our own local experience, .what frantic efforts are being made to maintain shortages in various lines or to create artificiafones. It is out of shortages or the appearance of them that fortunes are made. We need only instance such commodities as tea, rubber wool—to take a few at random! The existence of stocks has been concealed, and now that disclosure has come the vicious advice is given to curtail production. It is a ease of keep up high prices by any means. Unfortunately the real producer's personal inclination coincides with this pernicious doctrine. He wants to pat out little for a big returnslow work and high wages. A. big readjustment is urgently needed, and that, or its possible consequences, is exactly what everyone concerned appears to dread. In some of its aspects human nature is very child-like, almost puerile.At this very juncture some misguided politicians want to foist more racing on the country. The sport is at best only a distraction, and it is a fairly expensive one.' And distraction from production is the very last tiring the country needs. Many supporters of the turf argue that race meetings promote the circulation of money, and are good for business. They certainly engender an, appearance of activity; but the net gain amounts to—what? We have endeavored to show how in the house-hunting sphere of life the circulation of property is of no real ulti-' mate benefit to tire community as a whole, and in the upshot leaves "the nosition certainly no better. In much the same 'way the argument may be applied to racing. , There are other- effects. Concentration qf effort by every individual is the need of the day if the profoundly unsettled feeling permeating the community is to be banished. Racing and its attendant gambling.will not help to foster this. In our opinion it will only aggravate it. More meetings will mean more opportunities for turning the mind and hands temporarily from the task in hand to pick "winners," seek the medium for backing them, find out whether they have got home, and {perhaps this is negligible in most cases) collect the proceeds. The actual waste of effort involved in the actual attendance at races is as no'thinT to the kss through this undercurrent created throughout the .Dominion by every race ameeting, small or large. To cater I further for the stay-at-home backer is to woTk directly against the best interests of "the country. Not long ago Parliament played a little farce, and the country was informed that (the death-knelt of the bookmaker had ■ been sounded. But he still lives, more vigorous than ever, and. with as avid an appetite. Perhaps, recognising this, Parliament is now taking steps him with a more generous bill of fare than ever.