THE BONUS AND THE RAILWAYS

Evening Star, Issue 18021, 15 July 1922, Page 7

THE BONUS AND THE RAILWAYS

10 THE EDITOR. Sir,—The Government, hi reducing Civil servants’ wages, is uniting with private employers in a plan to reduce wages until they equal the sum that is paid in interest on the war loans. The reduction in wages means that workers are to be compelled to pay for the war. The men who gave their blood are now called on to give their bread. The frantic effort to wages is engineered by financiers with the avowed object of getting back to the prewar gold standard. The bondholders have got heavy rates of interest. They aim at petting twice as much interest and twice the amount they borrowed. They lent pound notes wortn less than ten shillings each when measured by the goods they purchased. If they get back to prewar gold standard they will be repaid in sovereigns worth twenty shillings each. The war debts will thus be doubled. The greatest war of all times is being succeeded by the greatest swindle of all times. But that is not all. While the worker is having the war debt fastened on his shoulders and the bondholders are doubling the purchasing power of their bonds and their interest, they have been busy ; elsewhere. They have, through their oonj quest of political power, wrung concession | after concession out of the railway m I the form of free carriage of goods. These ! concessions amounted in 1911,' according I to Sir Joseph Ward’s Budget, to £1,150,000 l on railways alone. Since then the con--1 cessions have been so extended that they ■ must have reached colossal dimensions. H services are not paid for it simply means that the public, who do not come under ; the free list, are compelled by increased 1 fares or freights to make up the loss of j revenue. There are not wanting signs that tho public, who pay for the services ren- ' dered by the railway, are supporting the demand of the raihvaymen’s organisations | that all services rendered shall be paid : for. The railwaymen do not object to lime or commodities being carried free if i it is in the public interest, but what they (do object to is that the whole cost shall I be born by the railway. | .As an illustration of our attitude: When ’ politicians are appointed to sit on a Royal | Commission, and their work forces them to I engage a motor car, the owner of the car j does not cany them free. Their fares are i paid for out of the Legislature Fund. The ; railwaymen contend also that all politicians* fares should bo charged to the ■ Legislature Fund. Another illustration is j newspaper reporters. They are carried | for £l2 10s per annum all over New Zcaj land. The. railway unions claim that if they had to pay the full annual ticket the j extra amount collected by the railway would be £6,000. If it is in. the public I interest that reporters should be carried ! free, then tho public should pay for it. j Why should the whole burden bo fastened !on the railway ? If every service now ren- | dered by tho Railway were I charged to the department to which it | rightfully belonged many grave abuses 1 would bo removed, and the public would benefit by cheaper fares and freights. We then would not be reading of the fanner who used the railway to get limo carried free to improve his farm, and who, when he had wool to send to market, sent it by the competing motor lorry. The railwayman do not object to tho farmer get- , ting lime free, but they object to bearing 1 (ho whole burden. If it is in the public 1 interest to carry it free, its actual cost should be paid for out of the Consolidated Revenue.—l am, etc., J. E. MacMaxus, President Otago Branch New Zealand Workers’ Union. July 13. | [Wo have refereed in our leading ! columns to the first part of Mr Mac- | Manus’s letter. Wo expect to refer later to tho second part of it. —Ed. B.S.]