“CONSUMERS’ MOVEMENT.”

Evening Star, Issue 23444, 8 December 1939, Page 6

“CONSUMERS’ MOVEMENT.”

Charity is not among Dr M'Millan’s qualities. In his view apparently virtue is confined to himself and those who are in agreement with his political opinions. The member for Dunedin West is particularly severe on the Press, and at a meeting in South Dunedin last night, called to form a branch of the New Zealand Consumers’ League, he gave vent to some characteristic utterances. We are not concerned to defend the newspapers from his assertions, which were as unwarranted as they were inaccurate. The probity and fair dealing of the Press of this country arc only questioned for (propaganda purposes in the political arena. There was little enthusiasm evinced at last night’s meeting in the object for which it was called. Generally speaking, consumers’ interests in this country are well protected by competition, by the vigilance of the Health Department, and by Government regulation. The cost of living to-day is certainly high, but that has not been brought about by' an excess of profit-taking on the part of traders. Dr M‘Millan last night took advantage of the opportunity to express some unsound and revolutionary views on finance. What a meeting called to consider the formation of a consumers’ league has to do with his suggestion to impose n capital levy in this country it is difficult to say, but some light may be thrown on the matter by developments in the United States, where it is declared that under the guise of the “ consumers’ movement,” people with revolutionary ideas are attacking the entire economic system of the country. In an article in the New York ‘ Readers’ Digest,’ it is said that more than ever before the, average American has turned—by force of depression circumstances —from the making of money to the proper spending o,f it. The consumer movement was an inevitable and (when free of other aims) a desirable result of that shift. It includes sincere and public-spirited groups with no other motive than to combat the excessive claims of some advertising. But, also, the. article declares, pressure; groups have invaded the consumer movement: There they .are waging . an. ideological war.. Their, object is not to increase the effectiveness of the consumer in the American economic system. They are out to discredit, if not to destroy, the system. Some of them even prophesy that this movement will be the most potent of all the forces now laying siege to the country’s economic citadel, Thus it will b© seen that a scheme: that in the United States might have served a useful purpose is losing much of its effectiveness by the intrusion into it of political revolutionary doctrines that are extraneous to the original ideas of the founders. These were planned, as is the. way in the United States, on ambitious lines. “ The consumer cooperative movement,” says a bulletin of the American Department of Labour, “ has a far-reaching social philosophy. Its .final aim is to supply every need of life, social and economic, without profit, and by united effort.” The American people are not afraid to experiment, and their numerous failures, which include prohibition and the New Deal method of spending for prosperity, should serve as a guide to the rest of the world. So far. as New Zealand, is; concerned, there is no particular call for the creation of a consumers’ league, and it would he particularly unfortunate if a movement under that guise merely developed into an instrument for political propaganda.