AGRI-SYNDICALISM

NZ Truth, Issue 936, 3 November 1923, Page 4

AGRI-SYNDICALISM

WILL THE DAIRY POOL BE Ma6e I j COMPULSORY? | Shuffler M assay's plan of sub* ordihating a New Zealand Act of Par* l iament to a sectional poll has resulted m a new determination by the truly | rural to prove the case for Socialism; and the Seven Devils may now be seen parading to the dairy factory dl*gutaed m gaiters *nd a hayseed thatch. :: *• - :» According to the published details of the poll of dairy farmers on acceptance or rejection of the Dairy Prodi.ce Ex* port Control Act, m round figures 22,000 voted for it, and 9000 voted against it, and 26,000 did not vote. ! :: :: ; :: That is to say, the opponents who took the trouble to vote are less than half of the supporters who voted, but the supporters who voted are less than half of the enrolled farmers. :* :r j: An opposition of 9000 farmers is a serious handicap to a pooling scheme, bbt It is to be expected — or" at any rate to be hoped — that no; dairy farmer will, carry his active opposition beyond tho ballot Unless ahd until the Dairy Producers' Control Board (to be set up under the Act) gives good ground for hostile action. :: :: m For a start the Board should be given a fair field, and nothing should be done to remind it unnecessarily of the fact that the Act has been carried by a minority vote of the farmers. The Board Should be judged on its merits. :j : : ::■"•■ It will, m any case, hay© difficulties enough. There never was an occasion when the eqonomlc situation was more baffling than now. There never was a time when farmer -Control could point to more economic blunders than now. '■it ' ■ r . it : : At n time when so many farmer- j controlled companies are In difficulties, j through under-capltallßation, specula-.! tion, and ■general -bad management, the dairy farmers have chosen to Issue A challenge to the business brains that m the past have served them (or disserved them, if you prefer it that way). :: :t »: To thin remark someone may rjetort: "But co-operative effort is not a challenge to business brains. It represents the adoption of a new principle, possessing inherent advantages over the old principle." :t a t: Unfortunately, tho dairy farmers have not pitched their chorus In that key. They have not only issued a challenge, but have rubbed the dirt m. t: n 5i Hoar what tho Dominion President of the Dairy Farmers' Union, Mr. O. Parker, said at To Awamulu: "For many years the industry 1 ad been regulated by other than tho producors, who wero now given the opportunity to control their own affairs. The arduous work of production had boon made to carry the agon ts, whose services wero inconsiderable In comparison with their remuneration, which was comparatively great." This means that the agency firms have been an unprofitable top-weight on dairying. Other supporters of the Act have called a spade a spade by referring to the agency flrniH as "parasites." tt " " Now, for these firms "Truth" holds no brief. They have sometimes farmed the farmer. But can it be said that farming the farmer has proved to be a general rule? : : i * : : Have they starved tho farmer of credit? The evidence is to the contrary. The evidence is that the farmer has received more credit than la good for him. In his own esteemed companies the trouble 19 that there is too

little of .his own money- and too much (interest-bearing) of other ♦jeople's. :: :s a Is the cure rnor<* credK, or does the cUfe consist of a writing' doWn of the false capital values of land? While that vital question is Hfctll atjssue, ahd while the misuse of farmers' credit Is abundantly evidenced, m march the dairy farmers with a. fresh mission to replace the "parasites" per medium of a special Act of Parliament. :: ii »S The citation of these few facts of the existing: situation is sufficient to prove thaf, if they are to replace the "parasites" m the marketing sphere, the farmers will have to show far more, sagaclfy than they have shown m similar replacement efforts m other spheres. They will need more than the luck that has attended certain other enterprises. : : : : : : Perhaps there are marketing improvements that can be made without compulsion. The Meat Producers' Control Board seem? to have made such improvements. May the Dairy Producers' Control Board be equally fortunate. For the day when they begin to compel, their troubles will also begin. r• • -.'.... ■ : : : t : t Then there is that matter of Socialism and Syndicalism and State-sup-ported interference with trade. When Farmers* Union President Poison came back from Queensland shrieking against the Seven Devils of Socialism, hbw little did his admirers think that h«j would presently be holding a candle to the same Devils, thinly disguised m smock und gaiters and a set of hayseed whiskers?- . . : i . : : is Only the kind of consistency In which the farmer is pleased to indulge himself would permit a free* trade -and anti-Socialistic organisation like the Farmers' Union to burn incense before ft Socialistic- joss whose economic pretension is on all fours with those professions which, when issuing from the lips' .of Holland, are scouted as scandalous. ■'■-' :Y it i» When the farmer says he can wipe out one sort of middleman "parasite;" and the Socialist says he can wipe out another, where is the practical difference between the two? And If the farmer can make good his economic boast, how can he limit its political meaning? : : : » : : What have these selling-control schemes done In Australia? News has just come to hand that on the last three fruit ' pools the Commonwealth Government lout half-a-milHon. AntiSocialist people are finding heroin half-a-mllllon reasons why Governments should leave trade alone. If the financial result had gone the other way. would not the Socialists have been equally entitled to turn the half-million profit Into political capital? : : i: :: The farmers' expectation that a now era will arise out of hln effort to collectively control marketing may be right or may be wrong economically, but It will be morally unexceptionable if tho farmer frankly accepts all that will be connoted by tho *uccvsk of his own experiment. : : : : : : So much political candour, at least, is to be expected of him. t: v :: As a politician who considers the referendum to be the sheet-anchor of the shuffler, Mr. Maßsev'a recourse to any sort of a referendum is humiliating; but when he submits a full-dress Act, passed by the Parliament that represents all the people of Now Zealand, to th© # final arbitrament of a ncctlonal poll. 'he plunges representative ln*titutionH into a queer predicament. : : J » : t This inverted pyramid situation Ih the nort of antl-ellrnax that develop* out of dictation to Parliament by v grass -conscious minority.