COMMERCIAL PARLIAMENTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16617, 15 December 1919, Page 7

COMMERCIAL PARLIAMENTS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I notice’ thjkt the Liberal journals of Taranaki advocate a commercial Parliament; and incidentally Mr. Rqbert Masters as a suitable progressive representative for the Stratford electorate. If the workers of New Zealand would only put a little thought into the cause of the present high cost of living, they would turn down every aspiring commercial politician. Does the average worker know that the raw material in his Sunday suit costs tho miller less than six shillings ? Has the tailor’s wage been increased so much that the suit which six years since cost £o 10s cannot now he supplied under 12 or 1-1 guineas? Does he know that the raw material in a pair of boots costs but a few pence? He at any rate knows what it costs to shoe his little Tom and Jean. I would ask the worker who hut the commercial man has collected the difference between the sis bob paid to the wool grower and the £l2 12s that are paid fon your suit? You are now advised to appoint these commercial profiteers to fix your tariffs, etc. Again, who but the commercial man opposes your requests for increased wages when you find it so hard to make ends meet? Also, was it not the strife for commercial supremacy that had a great say in starting the late disastrous war? Elect a commercial Parliament, and you will have eternal commercial strife. Moral— Protect your own pocket by keeping the commercial element out of your Parliament. Their prevailing instinct is profit, no matter who suffers. Thanking you in anticipation of space for above.—l am, etc., WM. M‘DONALD, (A commercial man for 30 years.)