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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 169, 22 July 1935, Page 6

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. ,Sir, Your leader ol ’J uesday last wa> • interesting', but gave no additiontil light on an old subject. So far as yon went tin effort was commendable, but why not complete the analysis? Hi* lory will give much more data to work on at the cost of very little research. Your analysis of the ibaehinc is probably quite correct- it did. and does cause some unemployment in some di i ructions. But for all that employment was givcen to make the machine, tc mine the orc and smelt it; the machine changed industry from one groove t< another. Nevertheless the conclusions arrived at in your leader are entirely erroneous, due to the fact that you left > the analysis half done. The coming of > the machine produced more wealth and l more money was forthcoming. Money '♦and wealth were then analogous terms ; (more or less). For instance, 1 have 1 just weighed a penny of 1796 and 1 ! find it to be a trifle over Ijoz. —a pennyworth of copper! Weigh a penny of to-day for comparison. A crown oi the day contained 5s worth of silver—does it do so to-day? You may call it tievaluation of money, inflation, or any other adjective you please, but you cannot deny thta money became plentiful and more plentiful with the output of wealth; to-day wealth and money are things divorced. A man with thousands of sheep may be rich to day and comparatively poor to-morrow, but you cannot say the same about a man with money unless ho plays “ducks and drakes” with it. There was no gold or “sterling” standard in the days of which you quote. You say: “The interplay of supply and de i and is not a regular movement." Quite tiue. but why not go the whole hog and tell people why this is so.’ Why not analyse “supply” and “demand’’ from the point of view of economics? 'The term has grown whiskers ami it. js time it, was given a clean shave. “The interplay of supply and demand” will remain constant when money is tied to wealth in fixed ratio —and not before. To suggest that the machine is “the father of our unemployed ills’’ is more or less bunkum; it has a little part only in creating suffering ami hunger. The war speeded up machine work —also the manufacture of new money. After the war things remained more or less normal and soldiers were being reabsorbed in industry. Thon came the brain wave of some folks that prices were too high, ami world currency curtailment, (deflation) was considered to be for our welfare. Then we have a speeded machine and less money, and of natural consequence much unemployment. Will you deny this?—l am, etc., ANALYSIS. Yes. we do deny your thesis.—Editor.