INFLATED CURRENCY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16502, 1 August 1919, Page 7

INFLATED CURRENCY.

THE CATS!*’/ OF INDUSTRIAL TROUBLE. A writer lo the Sydney Hulled in says: "Strike?, more Mrikcs, riots or revolutions, ore features of practically all countries directly affectc'.l l>y the war. And llic main ennso is our old Iriend ‘Alcrlinm of Exchange.’ This is the law of cash ; a limited amount of medium is required for exchange purposes; but if increased hevond the limit, the total medium is diluted till il reaches the original exchange value. As individuals we hold or carry petty cash. In pre-war days it was. .say 20 shillings; but_as tram fares, postage stamps and the nke. have risen AO per cent., we now carry ,‘l(j shillings, this last sum being nl the same exchange value as the 20s list'd to he. There, put in a pill, is the trouble that is sluicing the world up more than it was ever shaken before. For var purposes all large currencies were oiJntcd, and all rallies have, or .should have, risen in proportion ; hot as vaiues. particularly wages, respond slowly ami irregularly, there result all kinds ot injustice air! Milfering. A r.iliomd way lor a country lo adjust wages to vaiues would lie tor the Statistician lo give the pre-war costs of living in the varied millings; fnr a Court to iix I he different wages on ill II lewis; then for wages to vary am uniat ically as variations in willies are renorted monthly or quarterly. ruder sin ii a system il would he. a mailer of indill’erenee to the wageearner how prices varied, and largely so also to the employer, for usually he passes extra costs on lo the purehasei s. The present, strikes resemble a crowd of injured blind men punching each 111 her; for strikes which slop ut cruel ion raise prices—a rise paid lor by the worker. A section of labour has only to reach .satisfactory wages to find that, owing to the increased cost ot living, llic wages are iiieaitislaetory ; and fins because the wages of one set. of workers are, as regards DO per cent., paid by other workers. it follows t hat, all round, wages can only lie raised ellecInrly by an increased production on the part of'the workers; and any increase beyond the Ijnvo susioiiMiuv limit in proportion to tho uso ol in^ devices or machinery, iu India. (.liina, ami Russii. if the total wealth earned were equallv divided, it would .still be miserable pay, and that because the individual product is small owing to the absence of machinery and organisation."