CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 69, 20 February 1932, Page 2

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

(To die Editor). < Sir,—On turning up a paper some 12 months old we read a report of a meeting of the lota! Chamber of Commerce, a special meeting to be exact,' 10 per cent, cut in salaries and wages and the abolition of the Arbitration Court, being two of the main items for consideration. Wo remember how well the Associated Chambers of Commerce assisted by the so-called public opinjon helped to bring about the 10 per content. We also read that the president (Mr Oram) of the local. Chamber, -said how everything which consumes the working man’s weekly wages would be automatically adjusted so as the worker would be no worse off. We know now how flat all those rash promises have fallen, and may I say how little the local Chamber has done in the .way of helping to bring to fruition some of their promises, Now, in fairness,, to the wage earners who want to live, not in luxury, but comfortably'and at the same time put a little away for the inevitable old age, please forget another 10 per cent, cut until you have justified yourselves for sponsoring the last one. Some members of' the locUl Chamber voiced their disapproval in no uncertain terms regarding a further cut and I think we owe them our congratulations. The working class, I atn sure, are just as willing to put .their shoulder rto the wheel nnd do their share, but in these modern times, when humans have advanced to such heights of knowledge and science, the thought that liow we want the worker under our heel and how we could grind that heel should nut find a place in the minds of those who are privileged to employ labour and who by the sweat,of the employees’ brow their wealth, is partly, if not wholly, gained.—l am, ° tL ’ “WAGE EARNER.” (To the Editor). Sir,—Has the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce assumed the duties of the Economy Commission? It is apparent that, though not tillers-of the soil, they can wield the scythe like unto the “Reaper of Death” mowing down wages, interest charges, etc., in one fell stroke. Gleaners pass over the field, but the once thrifty workers have given way to withered stubble, for has not the Chamber of Commerce spoken. The groat President Lincoln looks down on the destruction and murmur's: “Had they but followed. my .-advice— Government of the people, for the people, by, the. people.’.’—l am. etc., * . . . SELF-APPOINTED.