The Daily News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1920. A SHARE IN THE SPOIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1920. A SHARE IN THE SPOIL.

It would be difficult to find a more significant exposition of the spirit of many of the workers at the present time than the statement made to the Parliamentary Butter Prices Committee on Friday by Mr. Campbell, secretary of the Wellington Trades and Labor Council. He said: "While not denying the farmer the full value of his produce at a time of high prices, their complaint was that the working man had not his full share of the spoil." As a catch-phrase the expression will appeal to the workers, but the principle evolved is none the less preposterous, besides being utterly inapplicable to the point at issue. All this union secretary could urge in favor of the novel demand for a share of the spoil was that there must be some consideration for the man who had to pay the increased prices, otherwise there would be discontent, and "a community of discontented men would be a menace." Why single out the butter producer for having his "spoils" raided? If the claim is sound in principle it is equally applicable to the producers of all commodities, and all profits. It is nothing but a shallow piece of communism, and can no more bo defended than could a claim by pensioners and others with fixed incomes of small dimensions to a share of the increased wages paid to tbj workers. It may be convenient for a union secretary to ignore the fact, but none should know better than he that the object of the organisation on which he subsists is to secure the best price obtainable for ; labor: As a business proposition that policy is not only sound, but universal. Labor sells its services to the highest bidder; in other words, a worker goes where he can obtain the highest wages. Supposing the Government said to Kim: "You are already getting sufficient in the way of wages; you must be content with what you were paid a few years ago." There would be trouble at once. Yet the Wellington Union secretary would adopt the very same attitude to the dairyman, the hardest worked and the poorest paid worker in the Dominion to-day. For; years his prices—that is, his wages—have been restricted by the authorities. He has never been able to avail himself of the market value of his produce, and he has only been able to get' ahead of it'<by dint of long hours of unremitting toil on the part of himself, his wife and his children. If he charged up all this lalior against his product, as d 6 other manufacturers and traders and the industrial unionists, butter would have been selling during the past five years at from 2s 8d to 3a per lb. Now that he has an opportunity of securing a price somewhere near that of the Continental and British producers there i» a howl itom £he in-

dustpialiste from one end of the Domin-! ion to the other. The dairyman is entitled to the market price of his product as ia the industrialist to his, and if this principle is to be departed from then the country will have to face, at a later date, the granting of a subvention to the dairymen should prices full, as is quite likely. As a' matter of fact the principle is as pernicious as it is unsound, and the setting up of a Parliamentary committee and the taking of evidence of all and sundry is so much waste time. It is hard, of course, for heads of families to pay a higher price for such a necessity as butter, but then all other commodities are also higher in price, and wages have been adjusted accordingly. It is unjust to single out the dairyman as a profiteer. He has i never had his innings as yet, but has had to pay all the other increases like other people.