OUR DAILY BREAD.

Free Lance, Volume XIX, Issue 1029, 17 March 1920, Page 6

OUR DAILY BREAD.

And the Master Bakers' Threat. MO-man likes to feel the muzzle of a revolver pressed against his stomach /by way of impressing upon ■■ him t'iie fact that the sooner he handsi over to the owner ofthe -revolver the contents of his trousers pockets, purse, watch,(etc.,- the longer-he will' live. For that reason » the public will •probably put ablack mark against: the <United Master Bakers of New Zealand for threatening to. cut off supplies/ unless granted an increase in 1 the State-con-trolled selling price, of our daily' bread. It .does not require much imagination,' to realise what, a complete; hold-up of' t'iie bread' supplies would mean to the people—to people who haven't the faintest notion of what the trouble is about. Arid ;■ it is almost as bad to threaten such a; catastrophe! as to make: it happen. If a man pokes a gun in your face with tlie remark:. " Your money or . your life," you gladly, hand over your; money,' which is of less value to you than our. life. - By the same token if a baker .'says that' you will get no bread unless you pay so much for it, you are placeq ixx precisely the same predicament. Your bread is your life, practically speaking, and sooner, than go without you would gladly pay more.

It is nothing to the point. for the bakers to say, that ifhe present prices are taking them •; straight to the bank-, ruptcy court. Mr Masaey doesn't believe this. statement, but, even if it were true, the fact remains 'that; the bakers won't get justice simply by any extreme direct action methods. One more remark: The bakers say it "costs to deliver one loaf of bread. Does that mean that we can buy bread at that much less over the counter?