The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1936. NEW PROSPERITY ERA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 239, 9 October 1936, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1936. NEW PROSPERITY ERA

TTIE exchange arrangements whereby it is hoped that a degree of stability will be maintained between the dollar, the franc and the pound, are being lauded with much enthusiasm. There is need for a tempering of optimism in this connection. The removal of the currency and exchange barriers is certainly a helpful step. But currency stability is not enough; it will be necessary for the forces which make for better trading on the international plane to assert themselves. In so far as the economists are concerned they are nearly all on the side of the angels, that is to say, they favour a larger measure of international trade. Generally speaking it is the political element in the situation which is so unsatisfactory. It is the “representatives of the people” who constitute the nigger in the wood pile. It is stimulating to declaim against vested interests, and it is an equally easy assumption to make that these sajee interests, because they are prompted by the profit motive, are anti-social. But it has occurred before that private interests, prompted by the profit motive, have conferred tremendous benefits upon humanity. It does not necessarily follow that because a person gets himself elected in the hurlybui’ly of a general election, that he is either capable or willing to interpret the “will of the people.” In many matters “the people” has no “will” to be expressed. There are two definite barriers in the way of an improvement in general trade conditions, quite apart from currency. One is the pressure which sectional interests bring to bear upon Parliaments, and the other is the desire of the bureaucracy to increase its own power. It is not surprising, when sectional interests are continually asking for Governmental intervention, that the officers who are charged with such interventional policy should eventually come to hold a very low opinion of the ability of those who are continually crying out for Governmental aid against their own economic incompetence. There is no particular virtue in international trade. It used to be regarded as an ensurer of international peace, but that has been disproved. It has merit, nevertheless, in that it results in grapes being imported into the United Kingdom and the abandonment of any effort to produce them in the Highlands of Scotland; An illustration nearer to home is provided in that excellent oranges from South Australia could be available at low cost to the consumer, but are not so available because of Governmental action, taken to protect the growers of inferior oranges in the South Sea Islands, and growers of potatoes in New Zealand. There are no currency difficulties to be overcome with between Australia and New Zealand in this trade, but local pressure is sufficiently strong to stop the flow of trade. Nor is there any promise of an alteration being made in the near future in trans-Tasman trading conditions. Parliamentary machinery is proving its inability to handle this problem, just as it is proving its inability to eope with the subsidised shipping competition problem. This does not deter elected persons of all parties from venturing into new fields under the plea that the will of the people must prevail. In a logical world, of course, Parliamentarians would concentrate upon their unsolved problems before they moved to take upon themselves new responsibilities. But this is by no means a logical world. In many respects it is very illogical, its illogicality being perpetuated by those simple people who refuse to be interested in public affairs and believe themselves to be virtuous for “minding their own business.’’ It is the man who “minds his own business” who is the biggest contributor to the mismanagement of the world. These conditions are not going to be altered immediately. The indifferent, man is not going to take a wider view of his responsibilities as a builder of a business and thus make his contribution to public discussion and understanding. The electorates are not going to become more enlightened and demand a more rational programme of political parties; sectional interests are not going to cease from declaring themselves to be the “backbone of the country,” and demand from Governments advantages at the expense of the consumer; Government officers are not going to deny themselves the opportunities for improving their positions and enlarging their careers by a neglect to offer plans; politicians are not going to eschew their claims to possessing the ability to set the world aright “in the interests of the people”; and while these things exist they will constitute impedimenta to the dawning of an era of prosperity. Until some political party is prepared to preach and to believe the doctrine that the consumer is king, the handicaps on trade and upon human betterment will continue to operate.