AS THE WORLD WAGS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14042, 27 April 1920, Page 6

AS THE WORLD WAGS.

. ... .-- (Bj>-'MW{!Urius.> , I •T/lierfe iilie sciffeikf- of -mpnej' iiiHhe.l jvfiridj £"&;li"aj Hi ls;>i>TlKJ Ssyefnftiffntf T of'nearly M the feiviliS'ed coiihtriesj)'tifr* ' cause of wsrr necessitiesj ,liad to istfud -,; safe and prudent hefore theswar staned, j but? necessity-Jmows~nb'lir4V.;and whether: it was safe or not paper had, to. bo fe- -' sorted to. The- Governments stoiwL behind the issues, but some of these' Governments are now in "Queer Street," . and;, their.-paper lias, -little.negotiable Value.- As paper ill value it took more-of it to purchase ithe' articles that go up the necessities of the human family, as-well as agreat many articles that cannot,; lie grouped under that term.. Prices went aky--rdeketing:'iiill they 'thre'4*<Sned to b illg i bout- 'iih ion i .lc ''■ (/oiivul-ioii. rtnd-_tJfen th?-bunk>.jrat-tm"their rates tiud "refused to flnalice the wild-tati orgies fh;'t were over-Jii'downiig: Gveat Britain: Americ'a- has done the same, iind the; first iiitimatiori : we get- of rthe -result is ail Sxplosicfuih. the ' ■market,' by which' half the, Value 'has been blown off, accompanied by;a. warn-, ing that still further fractures "may la'&0 place. The slump has not cbnfinedi itself to Britain and America, inasmuch as from far-away Japan -the hews is bruited abroad that prices of essential commodities have fallen considerably. We need take no cognisance of Germany; where -exportable goods are cheaper'than in any other part -tat" Europe. Germany is out to rebuild 'the great trade she, carried on'-before jthe war, and that cannot be done by the exercise-of a' spirit of profiteering. She recognises/that' the only road is one with a very steep in .which long hours find sniaji pay ; arer the essential concomitants,: for Germany is. prepared to sell cheaper than any of'her competitors.' There is no other method by which she can circumvent the worldwide spirit ,of hostility that she has ■ cr.eated against■■'herself'.-' But German trade in" the meantime will have little effect on the trade of the world, 'for wrfllitt herself she has not' fhe itieans : by which she can create ■ a great trade. She. lias little gold and 'little raw material." The first is necessary to pttrfchtise the raw • material, and the second is that until,she obtains the' J-aw material she cannot But this applies to only part of her industries, . Those for which she is self-contained'can be shaped into marketable goods and spl4 at a price shorn of all profiteering/" may have-eaten f up all her rabbits, and she will therefore not bfe a rumpetitor against New "Zealand, arid Australia in-the production of the raw material used in the manufacture of the resplendent fur-coat, which largely de--pends for it's existence on"-the destruction of the furtive and despised rabbit ; in the two. places mentioned. How--ever, that is beside the question. The putting up of the bank rafe in Britain and America, and possibly in Japan, has brought about a decided slump in certain articles of commerce. If no other country followed Britain's example of putting tip the bank fate "while money (paper money) is a drug on the market tne gold of-the world would flow to Britain, and in-self-protection other.countries must follow, suit. The immediate effect, however, is that the increase in the rate has brought about a lowering of the prices, for speculators will have more difficulty in getting the money to speculate with, and the dwindling demand will naturally react on the prices. This means of killing the profiteering ■ dragon is a~ bit quicker than Board of Trade inquiries, but, the two combined may serve tho purpose for which they exist. It may, however, be a slower process than the consumer : would like.

It would naturally be supposed that dearer money would assist to produce a dearer article. The mind would inevitably incline in that direction, but political economists are divided, on the point. Some have advised the necessity for an increase in the bank Tate, whilst others point, out the injury that such a stSp would cause to trade. Both, cannot lit; right, a fact Mvhich impresses the belief •on' those who are not political economists that there is as much dubiety amongst experts concerning the L-tftet of a. given line of action as there is amongst those who make no special claim to expert knowledge. Prominent men argue in emphatic terms on the/ certain effect that will follow the rais-' iiig of the bank rate, while; other equally prominent men have -arglied as strongly in the other direction. When doctors differ who shall decide? Apparently the sure test can only he based on results. Perhaps mental philosophy is largely influenced by the state of the liver and'its direct action on the stomach, but whatever may be the cause of the divergences, we have seen the result, so far. of the ptitting' up of the bank rate 'and the refusal to finance .speculators, in a decline in certain things that had soared abnormally, and in others again that had hardly risen into the domain of profiteering. The : inflation could not continue, and in certain directions it has gone on till, like the frog'in the fable, it has "bust," and thcsei who stood-to scoop the pool t are likely to be scooped into a. bank parlor there to tlndergo an examination as to what security "they can offer or by what means they can repay the advances made, if any have been made. I Fortunes have been made out of profiteering, and over the same thing the later disciples of grab will lose fortunes. | This is the way of the world. Before the peoples of the world .there is a long period of tribulation. That was iivevitable as the sequence of'the war. winch, while it caused industrial life to stagnate, at the same time caused i an excessive demand for those articles I the war prevented the manufacture of. I Then came profiteering, and following that will come the deluge, which will last for a longer period than, forty days and forty nights. The workirig men of Britain ask the Government to instittrte such steps as will avert the threatened economic paralysis-that is creeping over Europe, as if the British Government could put its own house in order and the houses of Europe as well. If the working man will not'work and .the capitalist will persist in profiteering, who, in the name of common sense, can be'expected to set in train the steps necessary to avert- the. economic pardr lysis that is creeping over 'Europe l ?

The man u_ith capital insists on :; hugely-inflated price for everything ho produces, and the working man. so that he. may he able to paj hi.s way. insists on a higher wage. If he- gets it the manufacturer gives his commodity another rise. If this is : refused there is a strike or a threatened strike, or a go-slow. The coiiteiidiiip. forces arc up against eai.h other, with the Governments entreating the workers to work harder, for only by hard, work ■ can economic salvation be attained, hi reply the worker insi-tt, on shorter hours ai the same pay, and there is no stability. The capitalist, who has the whip-hand of everything but labor, in the effort to make hay while the sun shines, keeps, adding 10 his jjrofits. until the world iV in .1 sweltering upheaval, and ''\pcononiie jj.u-al.vsib" threatens to take jilata of the partial sanity that reigned previous to the war. That is the present j:osition, and' nothing but the co-opera-tion of all the forces that make for progress can avert, the economic stagnation that threatens to engulph the warring elements. Prices must tall, and wages and work must be in keeping with the altered condition ol Allan's. The worldvcannot..recreate itself, .phoenix-like, out of the ashes of strife and hatred. It is only when thes- 1 to progress lun e been subverted that we may look for bettej things American finaneieis have s'hid that they will-not. at.sisl to put Euiope on its feet till JEurope has done some thing to entitle it to assistance The} say that 'Europe-will not v.ork and without work all r tbe\ could do would but add to its laziness Bntiih statesmen reply to appeals foi assistance with the negative as&uiance that they will do everything to assist Euiope out of its trouble shoit ot pipvid'ng it with money for Britain reriuhes all the money it has to provide for its own rehabilitation, and it is money the Continent wants The AngloSaxon, hold- the ke\ to the situation 1 but if Germany coidd only worn, out of her impoverishment and get > • start she-'-"VoiiW give the AngloSaxon holds the key to the si.tuati.ou; jplace. Of all, •■ the European pcoplesthe German is the best-educated and „the most industrious- But ■•how is h/3 *<to get'*a. start? rf vHa t ca|mo.tcget-'iti Tyrtn-'j

his industry, but who bate and. tear him because of his unserupulousncss. lb is' inevitable that economic paralysis will envelop Euroupe. As Americti. savs, the Continental worker wants to live on the money he can borrow, and financial "blisters" are. not going to be applied by Tjiicle Sam. They would bo only of a" temporary character, and the relapse into indolence' woidd surely intensify the trouble. Belgium, of al the Continental countries, is the only one that has thoroughly- grappled with a solution of the. "economic paralysis, and Germany would if she could, but she is at the present time in bad odour amongst the peoples that could give her the necessary assistance to set her machinery in motion. Her debt, in addition to her other financial obligations, will total about twelve thousand million pounds,, and apparently nothing etui wave her. at least, from the economic paralvsis'thati, threatens the Continental' countries. Italy and France, now that America has intimated her unwillingness to further assist the antipodes or industrv, have turned to> Britain, ais if Britain could "hump the swag" or a\ lazy and bankrupt Europe. The outlook is not a cheering one, "and the economic paralysis threatens to extend from the nerveless hands all over the bqdies of these famishing Oliver Twists. The onlv hope for France.obtaining her indemnities and'reparations is that these should take precedence of all Germanv's other debts, but will the Allies insist ou this," and leave Germany in a slough from which she cannot extricate herself? That should be done, but then how is Germany to "get a move on?"