The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1920. “THE ROAD TO RUIN.”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18020, 8 November 1920, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1920. “THE ROAD TO RUIN.”

The latest and heaviest cost of living bonus, which has been rightly described by the representative of the Employers’ Federation as “a staggering blow,” has evoked similar expressions of protest and alarm from one end of the Dominion to the other. Concern is expressed as much for the workers as Tor the employers, and particularly, so far as the latter are concerned, for the great army of small employers who must inevitably “go under” if the payment of this heavy bonus is forced upon them. So that there shall be no room for the suggestion that we are speaking from the partisan point of view, we will state the Tacts in the language of the “N.Z. Times,” the mouthpiece of the Op-position-in Wellington. In its issue of Saturday the “Times,’ ’after pointing out that an analysis of the universal cry of alarm occasioned by the last whirl of the vicious circle reveals that “a number of businesses cannot pass on the increase of wages ordered, and must themselves pass out,” proceeded to paint an accurate picture of the inevitably disastrous consequences:—-

This ■ means closing down on a great scale, with a corresponding scale of unemployment. At the I same time, any business which can pass on the new impost raises the cost of living to all, including the large section of the people thrown out of employment by the passing out of the businesses which cannot pass on. The one note of satisfaction produced by the new impost comes from' Labour. But the above considerations show that , this satisfaction will be very short-lived, giving place to a very different feeling. Now, the justification for the automatic movement given by law to the vicious circle lay in the allegation that every increase in the cost ot living brought about a proportionate increase in the general hardship due to the inelasticity of the general hardship due to the inelasticity of the general means.- Have facts justified that conclusion? If they have, then the hardship that was met by the last two bonuses decreed by the court must have been greatly increased to justify the third bonus, by far the greatest of the three. Let us consult the facts. The shops that live by selling high-priced goods are flourishing; the totalisator yield swells to astonishing dimensions, with big increases every time of asking; the picture shows,' theatres, and places of amusement are packed night after night; sports of ali kinds receive vast patronage; the pleasures of the week-end everywhere produce large crowds of welldressed, smiling folk; travellers fill the trains and steamers without any diminution of the normal; appeals to the benevolent by a score of methods are regularly honoured by responses equal to those of the*past; the much-discussed liquor bill swells easily. These are the facts passing before every eye.- They certainly do not justify the argument on which the operation of the vicious circle is founded. They certainly do not show that the day of the last and greatest wage bonus is the day of last and greatest hardships. When the light of fact is turned on, the justification ot the vicious circle tumbles to pieces. That justification relied on hardship—the light reveals prosperity. The cry of alarm raised everywhere by the last and greatest impose proves that the funds maintaining this prosperity have reached their limit. It is useless to carry on the pretence that the public hardship requires the continuance of the vicious circle. The fact is patent that the vicious circle has become a dire menace to the public safety. The fund maintaining this prosperity has its private side and its public side. The first can speak for Itself, and is doing so, as we have seen, with no uncertain cound. The second can be examined according to the published figures. These show that a verylarge aggregate annual sum has been added to the wage and salary pay; jnents of the Public Service, and that the addition has not yet reached the end. Moreover, the strain of taxation is obviously great, and the danger of increasing it is a menace to th‘e general producing power. There may be compulsion to increase the strain, due to causes beyond human control. It is a strong reason for refraining now from adding to the strain which is already abnormal and most severe. If there be a remnant of this fund, the first claim on it is tor the smallest receivers, not the largest. But the vicious circle proposes to sweep it away to the largest. The new impost gives nine shillings a week extra to the man who earns nearly a pound a day, while the widows and old age pensioners and small superannuation clients ot the State get nothing. The largest-paid haye had several increases, and r these small people, whose right is as great and whose necessity is incomparably more, remain in their misery. This is an injustice, crying all the louder that it is done to the detriment of the miserably poor for the benefit of those who can afford to keep the things going that are of luxury. Another injustice is that single men get the full benefit of the new bonus, to the disadvantage of the heads of families. There is no distinction between the case of the man who gets his board easily at from sixteen shillings to a pound a week and the man who'ijs?, many mouths to feed at growing prices. These injustices are strong reasons for stopping the whirl/pf the, vicious circle. They help to make overwhelming the fact thfit we have reached the limit of

taxation beyond which lies general disaster. The vicious circle has become intolerable; it is growing worse daily; if it is not summarily stopped it will precipitate this Dominion into a disaster which will fill the ages to come with most mournful memories. They will be memories of a disaster brought about by the adoption of a ■course without necessity and contrary to reason.