NATIONAL RECOVERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22716, 31 October 1935, Page 10

NATIONAL RECOVERY

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The eleventh proposal of the Government which appeared in your issue of Tuesday under the heading “ National Recovery,” reads:—“ 11. With the return to improved and more settled economic conditions it is proposed to have a general examination of our labour laws with a View to increasing the scope of employment, maintaining and, where, possible, increasing the standard of the workers.” It is evident that the Government realises the immensity of the problem to be surmounted. We, the “ vulgus,” arc not the Nelsons that Ministers imagine themselves to be, for we cannot regard the “ where possible ” with our blind eye. Our present system of finance does not permit the complete and lasting rehabilitation of the worker, wage-earning or salaried person; it is even now undermining the complex structure of our social and business co-ordination which it has created. How can any debt system allow complete independence to all? The two main factors to be contended with to-day are the marvellous development of mechanical production and the control of credit by banks. The latter supersedes the former, and until such time as the banking system reflects the true position of our country the former is and will remain an insoluble problem. Why should a comparatively small group of men detrimentally control the spiritual, mental, moral and physical existence of the bulk of mankind? Since 1094 we have been tied to a debt system, and the time for reconstruction is long overdue. We are indeed a patient people. If we are able to produce the goods we require, if we are able to supply the services we need, why should we not have them? If one group of men will not make the necessary alteration in legislation, then it is for us to see that a change is effected, unless this change is made in monetary control it will be impossible for any party to give us more than the sedative “ where possible,” “ Magnas inter opes inops.”— I am, etc.. Exponential Function. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Of all the gross misstatements that have ever been committed to paper, 1 believe the one in your issue of yesterday to the effect that the Reserve Bank is the people’s bank is unparalleled. The statement to which I refer is taken from the statement, presumably produced by Messrs Forbes and Coates, entitled ■‘National Recovery.” It is evident; that they become more audacious daily. A reserve bank is a bank for the trading banks, and tends to make the banking system safe for the banks; but primariiv it centralises control. By the operation of a central bank in every country, it is possible for a few international financiers to control and dictate the money policy of those countries. The best available mechanism of distributing the goods we nan produce is by means of tokens having relative values, and this we recognise as our money system. We may produce what goods we will, but it depends on the policy of the controllers of the distributing system (money) as to the degree of deprivation we are forced to exist under, and this world control is being gradually centred into the hands of a few financial magnates.-—I am, etc., Ehoa. Dunedin October 30. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The advertisement appearing in, Tuesday’s Daily Times under the above beading is pertinently rich in ludicrous assertious. Our National Government is now well and truly launched on its campaign of retaining office. A number of the statements made concerning the wisdom of past policy are open to severe criticism and the ability of the present party or anv party to give effect to the promises or proposals made is questionable, unless the basic cause of our troubles is eradicated. One paragraph states, “ Our national resources are unrivalled and unimpaired. If this crisis did not impair our national resources, what did it do? We know that there has been no diminution in our ability to produce; the same page of your paper mentions the excess of coffee production in Brazil, and this same so-termed excess of production is applicable to goods of various descriptions. The advent of the depression period did not check the seasons from providing us with bountiful harvests; in fact, the gifts of God have, in effect, been thrown back at Him by the burning, dumping or otherwise destroying of the natural yield of the harvest. The crisis has not prevented the continued invention of improved mechanical devices for the abolition of man-power, although it is admitted that in some instances the inventions are not used because they would displace man-power to a greater degree than is the case at present. Surely it is now evident to the citizens of this country that as stated by the Government our national resources are unrivalled and unimpaired and that the crisis was and still is a monetary one, and money is only a reflection of our true wealth and at present is an inadequate reflection or shadow because our true wealth is only partly represented in monev tokens. It is akin to a shadow at the noonday hour—at its shortest. Machines will continue to displace men. Then how are men to live? By a national dividend. It must come; it is as inevitable as the rising of the sun. It is for us to demand of our politicians that the money question which is our means of distributing goods receives immediate and urgent attention. It is the most vital factor before the public today, and any politician who fails to give his whole-hearted support and undivided attention to this matter is unworthy of support. Complete and lasting national recovery is utterly impossible until the money question is satisfactorily dealt with. If this is not done we will continue to read that “with courage and fortitude the road to prosperity has been cleared,” while meantime we continue to do without the goods that are being destroyed.— I am, etc., Atlas.