"Business as Usual."

NZ Truth, Issue 508, 13 March 1915, Page 8

"Business as Usual."

The Price Raisers' Cant

Patriotic Profit- Pinchers Piffle.

Pay and Smile.

The Massey organ of this town has lot itself loose on the question of the cost of living. f It has borrowed the cant term "business as usual," which tho plutocratic Journals of England first coined, and from this they tell the overcharged householders of the Dominion that they are not true patriots unless they meet tho wickod extortions of the morchant associations with a smile. Tho article m question forgot to make any reference to the increased taxation that | has also to be paid by tho workers of j this country. It is to bo assumed they i are to go down upon their knees and | bless Jimmy Allen for this likewise, i'fhe underlying causes for tho high | price of our food is not the question of Its increased cost of production, t>uc tho extortions which hamper its distribution. Every true patriot seems when engaged m trade to be madly desirous to add something extra to its coßt, as a proof of loyulty. However, thero must be a limit to THESE WICKED EXACTIONS. The people cannot bo fooled even by tho "Dominion." The remedy will have !to be applied sooner or later. That is the people must got into their ovrn hands tho distribution of the wealth they produce. It Is outrageous to find I tho people robbed dally by a gang of middlemen, and then to Ilnd this sort of thing extolled "as patriotic." If the war does kill off our mankind, it is to bo hoped it will nlso kill tho patriot ; who makes dear the people's food, and; forces beggary into many innocent homes.