WAR LOANS.

Evening Star, Issue 18044, 11 August 1922, Page 7

WAR LOANS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your correspondent _ “ Wageearner ” says: “Itis no use saying a new country can carry on without a certain amount of borrowing.” Will your correspondent tell mo where and when I said that? “Wage-earner” egotistically boasts that ho proved my statements about war loans and interest to bo wrong. I am afraid he is again drawing on his imagination. Your correspondent triumphantly asks: “Whore would New Zealand be today if she had pot gone in for loans?” The worker would not bo having his wages reduced to help pay for tho interest bill. Ho would not be taxed from tho cradle to the grave on every article he uses to help pay interest, and the next General Election would not ho fought between tho bondholders and the slaves of the bondholders. Financial capitalism is determined that interest shall bo met by cutting down the wages of labor and) by increased Customs duties. Financial capitalism carries on a persistent propaganda in favor of lower wages, but declares that high rates of interest are sacred; therefore Labor must be broken on the wheel that these sacred obligations may be met. Will “Wageearner” tell mo why interest is not being reduced as well as wages? If the workers’ standard of living is to bo reduced to relief work wages to pay for tho debt, why should not the interest bills he correspondingly reduced? Your correspondent’s explanation of the cancellation of war debts is being sent to Mr Balfour to be added to hie collection of curias. - It is certainly illuminating; hut “Wage-earner’s” conclusions do not harmonise with Sir Balfour’s pronouncements. I. thank your correspondent for enabling me to prove that wars have been carried on without borrowed money, and that war debts have been paid off, and for giving .additional reasons in support ofthese two points. In conclusion, I remind him that tho “ war to end war ” finished four years ago, and the "green fields of perpetual peace” are no longer unveiled to the gaze of admiring audiences. All the mirages have disappeared, and in their place comes tho pressure of Governments squeezing from the masses the wherewithal to meet the demands of the oligarchy of bondholders whom the “war for democracy ” has made more powerful than ever. The burden of interest is equivalent to an indemnity imposed by a foreign conqueror. It continues to increase, not merely from the process of fresh borrowings, but from the heavy blackmail imposed by the “ high financiers ’’ at every renewal of the old mortgages. Tho pre-war debts are only renewed at doubled, or nearly doubled, rates of interest. These increased interest charges upon old. obligations increase tho maintenance costs of public utilities by millions of pounds per annum. These, additional millions per year are paid away for nothing in return—-no service, no product. As I explained by the illustration of the member forGovan, tho more the prices of products fall the more and more must products be "sold to meet the demands of interest. No wonder Vaillant Couturier wrote: “Men feel a hand settle on their necks which shoves them down to the mud where they have left their weapons. Terrible times are in store for us.” But I believe there is a way out. I believe Labor can lead the way.—l am, etc. J. E. MacMastts. August 10.