COMING BUTTER SHORTAGE Truth

NZ Truth, Issue 770, 7 August 1920, Page 4

COMING BUTTER SHORTAGE

Truth

NEW ZEALAND HEAD OFFICE:

LUKE'S LANE, WELLINGTON.

BRANCH OFFICES — AUCKLAND: s Custom-street East. ' CHRISTCHUR CH: 102 Gloucester-street. DUNEDIN: No. 6 Roberts's Building, Stuart-street SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1920.

v*» i IS AN IHDUSTRIAL_Wpa IMMINENT ? One of the most disquieting features m the increasing prosperity which this little Dominion enjoys (?) is the steady and continuous rise m the cost of livln- We do not shut our ey«s to the exceptional conditions which ha^e caused the abnormal increase*, m every necessary of life during: the mst six years but we do assert that such was the persistent upward trend of prices, that even had the world war not eventuated, the cost of living to-day would still have been as relatively oppressive on working people when compared with the average wages paid. What strikes the thoughtful person these times is that prices are still bounding upward and are now considerably higher than they were during the last two years of the war. It is close on two years since the armistice was signed. Within one year aiter the cessation of hostilities threefourths of the armies had been demobilised and at least half of these men had returned to productive labor of one kind or another. In addition to this wo have had the politician, the pressman, and the pulpiteer persistently pressing upon the proletarian plugs the palpable and paramount need of mor c production. Yet despite these things, and with millions' less non-productive consumers, with the wanton waste and wilful destruction of war cut out, with millions more producing and producing at the highest tension the blandishments and bribes of the employers can induce (or should we say seduce?) them to maintain, the world's needs, according to the riggers of the markets, are still under-supplied, are, indeed, m shorter supply than four years ago, when these things did not appertain and so prices to-day are higher than ever. And the end is not yet. * * * * Let us confine our considerations to the price and supply of but one necessary commodity produced m New Zealand— butter. To-day the price of butter is double what, it was fifteen years ago; it is five times what it was thirty years ago, and the latest bit of comforting news is that the recent penny per pound increase is merely a beginning of a further upward jump 'of which no on-e at present can see the end. The plute- press and the party politicians are telling us quite complacently that before the flush of the summer supply comes, butter may bring two-and-sixpence per pound. No doubt the farmer will rejoice at the stroke of fortune which enables him to charge whatever he pleases for this product of his labor— or is it still chiefly of his children's labor? We needed not the precise reporters to tell us the other day that the Farmers' Union Conference congratulated itself on "our increased prosperity"'; we could see it passing its anti-Labor and anti- Socialist resolutions and calling upon the Government to Temove the duty on all agricultural implements and to increase it on all agricultural products coming into the Dominion. Never was the adage. concerning the alleged value to certain people of "an ill wind," more forcibly illustrated. What does it matter to the wealthy farmer that the high price of butter m New Zealand (as well as the equally high prices of every other necessary of life), falls hardest on the town wa'ge-wojker? He scarcely gives it a thought, unless it be to further entrench himself, lest theworkers' efforts to improve his position, he seeks to secure for himself some of the prosperity that is meanwhile flowing toward the farmer. But the worker's wages are fixed and kept at subsistence level by the operation of precisely the same law that regulates the price of butter. A plentiful supply of butter (or any commodity) available for sale brings down the price and, conversely, a limited quantity on the market, as is the case just now, sends the price soaring. This rule is called the Law of Supply and Demand and, m th e open market, with unrestricted competition, its workings are as sure, secure and certain as the eternal, heavens. The labor-power of the wage-worker, given the same conditions, is as any other commodity on the market. Hence, when we are told that butter is to cost from' sixpence to nincpence per pound more m a few months' time, we conclude, and rightly, that there is a shortage of the supply of butter for sale m New Zealand. # * . * * The effect of the rise m the price of butter, when consummated, will mean to the wage-worker with a family a reduction m the purchasing power of his earnings by two to three shillings per week. The shortage of the local supply of butter is explained when it is learned that every boat leaving these shores for London, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow lakes away thousands of huridredweights of this precious commodity for sale m British markets. It is no use prowling at the, farmer. He is not to blame. The average farmer, rack-rented and mortgage-ridden (which last is the same thing — if not a worse — under another name) must needs sell his products at the highest prices they will fetch, or -court bankruptcy! If by selling his butter m European markets he can realize even one farthing per pound more than by supplying New Zealand merchants, or if by sending the greater portion of his produce Home, and thus leaving a shortage of supply m the Dominion, he is enabled to secure a higher price m this country, then rest assured the better paying policy will be followed by the farmer. And he would be a fool if he did not. He, like all the rest of the useful people, is engaged m a merciless struggle for life m a competitive system of production, and, like others, he sells his commodities for the sake of the profit they bring. It is a case of economic determinism. To do otherwise is to court failure and defeat and earn the name of fool or foozler, and have the fingers of his fellows pointed at him as one who, with splendid chances, failed to "make good," He does not know that much of the struggle is system created and hinders, instead of helping, towards success. His mentors teach him differently, and when one unfortunate falls out of the farming ranks he sees others scramble for his place, each hoping, if successful m obtaining the farm, with a more thorough adherence to the rules of th e game, to win out where he failed. « * , # # Thus prices are forced up and up, and the city industrial worker has no escape from the depreciative effect of each successive rise on the purchasing 1 power of his wages— apart from the fighting strength of his industrial organisations. If these are strong and the Government 'is awaro of the fact, then the latter may bo induced to levy a small export tax sufficient to permit of the necessary local supply being sold at the old price, and compensate the farmers therefrom. If butter* is going up to anything like the pric c foreshadowed by the Prime Minister, the sooner he makes some such provision as herein suggested the better it will be for his peace of mind and the success of his administration. "Truth" does not seek to foment or further Industrial unrest and upheaval, but it cannot follow the ostrlch-nke habits of the average plutish politician. The workers are well organised, never were better organised, m fact, and never were better trained m the use of the industrial weapon, or more unanimous as, to how that weapon should be used. These thing's bein" so it is not to be expected, even if it were desirable that the worker should mutely and meekly continue to allow himself to be used as an instrument m 'the emptying of the storehouses of this Dominion of the. very foodstuffs he and his family require and thus make it more difficult to secure a sufficiency 'of supply of the necessaries of life,' which already he finds taxes ,to th c utmost .the purchasing power of his wages. If Mr. Massey and his Government expect, him to, then their experience as administrators during' the lust seven veai's lias taught them nothing-, and they are blind to the sig-ns of the tfane