GUARANTEED PRICES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 246, 14 September 1935, Page 9

GUARANTEED PRICES.

ATTACK BY AIR COBBE

“AIETIIOD OF BRIBERY.”

WELLINGTON, Sept. 14. “A method of bribing the farmer with his own money” was the description applied to Labour’s scheme of guaranteed prices by the Minister ol Justice (Hon. J. G. Cobbe) when speaking in the Address-m-Reply debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. Guaranteed prices for produce must mean inflation of the currency, and inflation of the currency always meant increased prices for everything, said Mr Cobbe. If a farmer by means of guaranteed prices received five times as much for his produce as he used to get, was he any bettor off if he had to pay five times as much for everything he bought? It was an established truth that even the best secured money must lose its purchasing power if issued in excess, because no device could maintain' its value in the 1 face of an over-abundant supply.. Mr Cobbe said it could not be stated too plainly that the chief objective of the New Zealand Labour Party was the establishment of Socialism. The national president (Mr W. Nash) had declared that a victory for Labour was a victory for their objective—Socialism. Mr Cobbe quoted a verse of “The Red Flag,” which he had found on a Labour pamphlet: “Look round, the Frenchman loves its

blaze; The sturdy German chants its praise; In Moscow’s vaults its hymns are sung, Chicago swells the surging throng.”

“It may be of interest to those who arc so enamoured of this new anthem,” said Mr Cobbe, “to learn that it has not even the merit of originality. The verse 1 have quoted is a plagiarism of an old Irish ballad entitled ‘Paddies Evermore’. . . .”

Mr W. Nash: Another injustice to Ireland.

“Do the Socialist members of this House subscribe to the doctrine that there is no difference between Socialism and Communism ?” asked Mr Cobbe. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr M. J. Savage): Are we under crossexamination? The Minister said that Socialism was the fetter with which mediocrity tried to cripple the genius. Socialism would establish a more hateful form of tyranny than any the world had known. Despotic rulers had tyrannised over the bodies of men and women; Socialism wonld tyrannise over their souls. Socialism was the substitution of State control for individual liberty and the planting of the upas tree of State tyranny in the Garden of Ereedom. “As one passes through otjr choice New Zealand bush attention is drawn to the beauty of the rata vine as its tendrils encircle some forest tree,” continued Mr Cobbe. “One must admire its beauty of foliage and flower, but by and by it crushes the life out of that which it at first beautified and seemed to protect. And such is Socialism. In theory it is beneficial and promotes happiness; in practice its horrible octopus-like grasp would crush out all independence of thought and action. If we were to submit to the regulations of Socialism, what about the future of the.race? Mould those who come after us bo able to stand up as free men and free women and look the world iit the face, or would they be poor, cringing creatures — Mr A. J. Stallworthy (Ind., Eden): On sustenance.

Mr Cobbe: “. . . . all of one tvpe, drilled into one class and creed, all as regular and even as the clipped shrubs in a Dutchman’s garden.”