AS THE WORLD WAGS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14702, 1 June 1920, Page 6

AS THE WORLD WAGS.

I (By Merairitts.)

The women of New - Zealand are reading the' liiot Act to their profiteering enemies in Auckland; Wellington, Christchurcli and Dllnedin. Each town has set up a . committee, who, in at least one of the places, fix the prices that are to be paid for certain necessary articles, and thereafter appeal to the women throughout their bounds to give no more than those prices for the enumerated goods, and not to purchase non-essential goods. They have waited for Mr MasSey's slow-moving legion of anti-profiteering boards and committees, and have evidently come to the conclusion that the millennium will be here and gone out into the distances before they have : distinguished or extinguished themselves by "their want of hustle. These officials may be moving, but the motion is imperceptible to everyone but: themselves, and the women " -have plunged into the vortex of. whirling 'and> swirling prices that are still high up in'the firmamental spaces,-with a determination to bring tnem- down to the hard'-surface of this planet. It is a great task, but it is encompassed, with -"" difficulties that would.daunt anyone but those engaged in thei hauling down operations. Many of the articles come from other countries, and the question may naturally be asked how manufacturers outside the Dominion are to be gripped and gut through their facings. That might e decided as an impossibility, but the women have a wide field in New Zealand itself,' and even some of the prices charged for imports have been swollen out to dimensions'-incompatible with their landed cost. ; The fact is that everyone is out to make hay while the sun shines, and there lias obviously been a, clear /blue sky, with never a cloud to obscure the sun's rays. Each one'is out with a liay rake, and lie has turned his swathes_ with profit to himself, and to,the discomfiture of those to whom lie disposes of them. People are buying.as little as actual necessity roninels them to buy, but still dividends keep satisfactory to the; shareholders. One would almost imagine that if they did nothing the business would show a profit, but that would be the negation of a satisfactorr turnover, for nothing cannot very weE be turned over. However, there is the fact that every woman knows what she paid for certain snoods four or five years ago, and what she is asked to pay now. She may experience a difficulty in calculating the cost of production, but intuitively she grasps the fact, without any calculation whatever, that the prices being charged hover on the fringe of banditry. Now is Mr Masses"'s opportunity if lie really means business, and if he does not seize his chance to get in -ahead of the women's commits, tees, it will be assumed that he does not mean business, but is waiting for the slumps in Europe, America, and Japan to"'do for "him'what- he cannot screw his courage up to the sticking point to do for himself. After the welter of tlio war there cam© a welter of what the world terms thievine, and after that comes the inevitable collapse. Like, rabbitskins, the drop will leave some people with nurselings they would gladly let- out for adoption by someone else." Yet the hard-driven members of these women's committees may be apos- ' trophised with the hope that morepower may lie given to their elbows.

Germany is out to Germanise Russia. Russia is practically out and done, and this is Germany's chance, and she is seizing it, as one of the means of expanding her trade. The German Government mav not be behind the movement. but 'German speculators and manufacturers arc pushing themselves into the breach caused by Russia's helplessness. The Germans are the "intellectuals" that Lenin says are the only persons who can control and guide- a nation to prosperity. Lenin has tried ignorance, and it has been a failure, and he is unlike the Scotsman .who "had tried baith," that is he had honesty and dishonesty, and had discovered that honesty was always the best- policv. "Lenin, however, intends to "try baith. He has put ignorance aside as useless, and will devote his attention to intellect. The German Labor Commission, a cable in Thursday's papers savs. I's negotiating for the migration of skilled German workmen to the chief Russian industrial centres. The "migration will consist of a first draft of 20,000 men, to be gradually worked up to 100,000 men, who. are to be selected from. experts in the metal, engineering, textile, paper, chemical, and'railway trades. All the other nations have been wondering how they are to aet into Russia to secure a share of the good things that will be going when Russia has made peace with Poland and Japan, these nations being the only two that are now actually at war with what was once the Colossus—a megatherium with a body of tinsel and feet- of clay. and air-dried clay at that: But there is still hope for the Allied nations. _ German intellectuals may assist in adding to Ru&sia's ability to maintain li<jr physical equipoise, but until Germany* has paid her debts Russia- must look to .the Allied nations tor the wherewithal to maintain her financial equipoise. Russia requires skilled workmen and money. The skilled workmen may be available in Germany, but in the circumstances Germany cannot reirivigora-te-her own industries and those of Russia at the same time, and it will require a-lot of capital.to do this.. Capital, too, is none too secure in Russia. She has renounced her preBedlamite debt; and who will trust Bedlam ? -The hotch-potch of a- thin g they call a Government in Russia will have to he remodelled on lines more in consonance with sanity, and although Lenin is on the look-out for intellectuals these might so overshadow himself that there would be no room for both in bis topsy-turveydom of State procedure. Yet the German experts may set the wheels of industry in motion, and Lenin may compel the Russian workmen to assist- them by workiug long hours at small wages, and out c< this may grow the trade that will supply her own necessities, if not of volume sufficient for export. The history of a failure will assuredly have to \>e written "if Lenin does not reform himself and his Government, as no one will throw money into tli£ whirling and chaotic maelstrom of Bolshevism and expect-it- to'reach safety. In the meantime Russia, is a conundrum that Germany will not be able to unravel. Nor yet 'would any other nation care to shoulder the responsibilities of attempting to drag Russia out of the slough of despondency into which she has sunk. Russia's .future is enshroulded m gloom.

I' President "Wilson may have been arbitrary and he may even have- been ; tyrannical amongst the people with 'whom he is associated in the Governj.ment of the United States, but Tie is imbued with the ideals of a great mind, and that covers a multitude of leaser j irliosnycracics that were no doubt induced bv the nerve-wracking experiences of the Peace Conference at Versailles. Whether he did what .was right- in the eyes of a few of his Ministers is not a matter of supreme importance. He did what he believed to he the best for the world as-a whole, and bis Ministers and the Senate should haVe done as the other nations did. Thev should have upheld the honor of the United States, and adopted the essential parts .of the Peace ■Trent?-, which had the approval of all the greater and lesser Powers. . The Senate, however, has arrogated to itself all the wisdom .of tfic earth, aiid lias declared itself a Peace Conference within .itself. An Amsterdam cable says the Kaiser has taken to tailoring his own suits, in which he excels, to which a facetious individual \ adds that it is unfortunate the Kaiser missed, his vocation. The Senate, whether. it could tailor its own suits, is certainly "cutting its cloth to suit its own purposes, irrespective of whether its handiwork defies the interests of,the United States or of the peoples of the world. It does not intend that the President-shall', cut the cloth for clothing America.- /Why then did it not take action sooner—-,lw-fore the President left for the scene of his brief triumphs at Versailles? .'Now President Wilson intends to make the rejection of the Peace Treaty the. ereat question in the .Presidential election, as the "resolution proposed was or ought to be inconceivable., as it was inconsistent with the dignitv ~of the United States and with the rights and 'liberties of its citizens and the very fundamentals of civilisation." As if the Senate were affected "fundamentals of civilisation." Their main concern is- that the "fundamentals"of civilisation" ehnll. not be affected by wjiat President Wilson does. Had