Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 546, 26 December 1928, Page 8

Citizens Say —

(To the Editor.)

MENTAL HOSPITALS Sir, Wo have lately been informed of the great improvements in mental hospital administration. It is a pity the reforms do not go far enough to provide more frequent baths for the patients who wish for them. It is not conducive to ordinary comfort to be limited to one bath in seven days. It is a hopeful sign that patients who do voluntary work are now allowed one day’s rest in seven. DARK CORKERS. RECONCILIATION Sir. — May I crave space in your valuable paper to draw public attention to the touching task being carried out in Auckland by the Society of Reconciliation. I understand that, through its efforts, each inmate of the Mount Eden Gaol received, as a Christmas gift, a small nosegay of flowers. At New Year the society will see to it that the prisoners each receive a piece of cake. It is this sort of thing, sir, that upholds one’s faith in human nature in an age of selfishness and unheeding bustle. DELIGHTED. PROTECTION AND PRICES Sir.— Unsophisticated protectionists readily admit that protection raises prices, but a time comes when, ‘'necessity being the mother of invention,” the exigencies of their case demand less candour. On the strength of one or two British industries—the “safeguarding” of which has been said to have been followed by more employment. lower prices and higher dividends —some credulous people go as far as to asse.rt that these desiderata naturally follow tariff protection. It seems impossible to get protectionists to generalise. Good evidence of the general effect of free trade on the cost of living would be obtained by comparing prices in Britain with those ruling in France or Germany. I have never seen it claimed that the advantage was with the protected countries, but I have often seen the reverse maintained. The 1.L.0. states that wages are no less than 90 per cent, higher in London than in Paris. I do not think there is that difference in “nominal” wages, and if not, part of the extra purchasing power in Britain must be made up in lower prices. In America the farmer makes an admission and a complaint: (1) tHa-t motection to farm Droducta raises

local prices to his advantage; $2) that the American manufacturer gets a higher tariff protection, and has his prices raised to an even greater extent, thus on balance he (the farmer) is hurt. Not much price-lowering about this! Mr. Thomas W. Page, the president of the American Tariff Commission, who ought to be just about the best living authority, in his pamphlet, ‘ Making the Tariff in the United States.” says: ‘‘There are few industries in the United States which do not include some concerns that could maintain themselves in open competition with the world. Even the greatest, however, include likewise concerns that barely eke out an existence behind the barrier of a high tariff. The form of inefficiency is manifold. Bad management, antiquated plants, unsuitable location, out-of-date processes . . . But it is precisely those most backward, whose need for protection is greatest. . . . Since the price is the same for all it must obviously be high enough to save the less favoured from loss. . . . This means that ‘to be protective, a duty must raise the price of imported goods to a point above that which the marginal (inefficient) producers of similar goods could accept without loss ... it must ensure them a reasonable profit.” The writer goes on to point out that this attracts new capital and labour to the industry establishing new and weaker ‘.‘marginal” industries circumstanced similarly to the previous marginal producers, “and if they are to be safeguarded the duty must be raised again.” ‘‘With rare or merely temporary exceptions the effect of American tariffs has been to raise the price that must be paid for imports into the American market. Little time is needed, therefore, or is spent by Congress in debating the question as to who bears the burden of duties.” All delightfully candid, but what a riddtheoryf pro^ec^on reduces prices” C.U.N. SOMETHING SEASONAL Sir,— May I, a disorganised machine a creature of • head" and “liver,” clutched by dyspepsia, register in your newt paper my annual protest against this absurd tradition of overwhelming dinner and unhappy "good cheer?” We *k, 1 admit I am, but the courts 6 , th . e heroes of romance is necessity to stand up and say “No, I thank you, when the seasonal eomplimenters srasEt^ a rh or f°K teri the ‘Usastrous to the debauch of the previous Christ mas. This pandering to the vice of gluttony is the wrong way to end thp year and the wrong wiv tl x . the unm January F nhe C r h mes tn^,f- S the Ve as a a o^ Slive" d^o a run? at andmeditaU^soTharth^flii"^ next bout with old man Time with stomachs and clear minds up and follow me? ' Who UNCLE CHARLES, Secretary, S.K.S.D.F.