THE PRICE OF PRODUCTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18053, 29 September 1920, Page 9

THE PRICE OF PRODUCTS

"T.W.E." instances the case of a lady who was purchasing fish, which was being sold at lftl per lb. She told tho salesman that a few days previously the price was 6d per lb, or 31b for Is. The retailer's reply was that he had found that peoplo would not buy ae quickly at the low prico, and that ho was now making bettor Bales at the higher price. Our correspondent complains thai the Board of Trade does not make a fuss aboutf the high price of necessaries, but about clocks and boots, which could have been bought cheaper. "'The person'who bought boots at over £3 ought not to complain, because thero were choapor boots in tile shop; but that is not the case with food and other necessaries, such as milk, meat, lish, groceries, clothes, and such like," adds "T.W-E." W. Sivertson writes at length in further argument , with Mr Mason, whom he believes to have "a self-centred mind, whoso points of virtuo arc markedly displayed in an unmistakably honest but excessively narrow conception of industrial conditions relating to value and eccchango." Mr Sivertsen contends that "the important bearing of economic facts have no influence upon Mr Mason." In answer to Mr Mason's question: "Is tho dairy farmer greedy or selfish when he demands, in common with every other section of tho community, tho full market value for the product of his'labour?" Mr Sivertsen replies certainly not. Ho says the dairy fanner only claims what every tnido union throughout the British Empire lias been claiming for years, and assures Mr Mason that "tho difficulties in which we are ell unwillingly involved" arise "from using a ' defective system which does not detormino value and prices in relation to volume produced The result- of this defect causes the rank and file of labour to be defrauded, by forcing them to pay a higher price thaa the actual value of tho goods produced." Mr Sivertsen then deals in turn with the "biassed mind" and the "ignorant mind," and points out that the economist Point blank refusos to explain what is wrong, wliilo tho ecclesiastic reverently deolares that it is a subject with which the . Ohuroh has nothing to do. He believes that the Christian citizen must take a side because there is no neutral ground between God and Satan, and no Christian can servo two masters. After stating the problem in outline, Mr Sivertsen says: "The intelligent Christian will, therefore, have no difficulty in observing that the system in vogue by "which each of tho owners of land, labour, and capital have their share determined, is responsible for the _ troublo that arises from an incorrect valuation. To remedy this defect is beyond tho scope of an individual Christian, but forms a problem for the Christian State." It is, in pur correspondent's opinion, important that the State should bo ruled by Christian men, though the mere profession of faith is insufficient. It is necessary that attention should be devoted to the defects of the system, and that all promoters of class prejudice and sectional antagonism should be denounced as enemios and cleared off the field beforo we can hope for a hearing of a detailed remedy. The genuine Christian can take •an active part in restoring industrial peace by a unity of forces and a practical proclamation of their faith.