WAGE REDUCTION

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 299, 22 November 1922, Page 6

WAGE REDUCTION

How ii is Effected

At the - beginning of last year the following extract appeared in the •'Bankers' Magazine" of the United States, and its canflour is delightful: '.' ; "Cap'-iar must proiect itself in ©very possible manner through combination and legalisation. THE COURTS MUST BE CALLED TO OUR AID, debts must bo collect- . Ed, bends land mortgages foreclosed •as' rapidly as possible. '- "When THROUGH A PROCESS OF-LAW the common people have lost their homes they will bo more tractable and easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of the leading central power o* Imperial' weal:h under the control of the leading financ'Vers.. A PEOPLE WITHOUT HOMES WILIi NOT QUARREL '■■ WITH THEIR RULERS." About the same time the following extract appeared in the English "Sunday Chronich*".: i "Wail Street,and Farrows. —The whole story of the closing of Farrowls Bank' could be made the themo of an exciting novel. Farrow's only marked one of the effects of a big movcmeUit set going in Wall Street, New York. Some six months ago the big New '-York bankers, Otto Kjahn, Pierpont Morgan, Schiff, and others had a talk, AND THEY DECIDED THAT WAOES MUST COME DOWN. They d'scussed the situation with the banking mandarins on this side (England). Then began a campaign of calling in all credits, of refusing ioans t 0 commercial enterprises. The petrol war-' cut off, and the industrial machine b-'gau io slow down. Securities! bsgan to diminish in value. Th<3re was ,a slump in this country as '"well as in tbe States —in fact, ALL- OVER THE .WORLD." And the "Sunday Chronicle" adds that thej"great banking drive" has "gone ! a little beyond its mark,", and the ! "unemployment question is becoin- ! ingra menace."

These extracts have appeared in our columns before, but we reprint them .tor the purpose of showing how nicely everything has been - arranged In New Zealand.

First the Money Power of New Zealand interviewed Mr. Massey after (lis return from England and told -li'tti that taxation -must be reduced And that wages must come down. .Then the Massey Government introduced •an amendment to the Industrial and Conciliation Act, which, in effect, instructed tho Arbitration Court:to reduce wages, the Govern-ment';--first of all, setting the example t>y reducing the wages of ths publ-c servants. The court is simply carrying out the instructions of the Massey •Government when it reduces workers' wages, irrespective of the evidence, tendered to the Court as to tho prosperity of the trade in question— the printing trade ia a cas-jj in point. Herd . the employers simply made their application and tendered no evidence. The result of the printers' award is an answer t 0 our contention that the Court has received instructions from the hidden "Money Power."

It only remains to point out to the reader that in the fight put up by tie Labour party in Parliament, during the committee stage of the Industrial and Arbitration A_cfc Aniendiriont Bill, that Messrs. W ! lford and

Wright were consistent supporters of

ihe Government when the divisions took place (see "Hansard, No. 85, 1921--22).

1 "Tho obvious moral to this story Is

■ttjjat nil the useful people should vote Money Powers' Representatives out ©f-power and vote In LABOUR.