The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1920. SUEDE SHOES, VASELINE, AND OTHER THINGS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160733, 20 August 1920, Page 8

The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1920. SUEDE SHOES, VASELINE, AND OTHER THINGS.

An Auckland boot firm has been fined £75 and costs for selling a pair of suede shoes at too high a price. No doubt the Board of Trade is shaking hands with itself. Probably, also, it will take an early opportunity of pointing out to the consumed this additional proof of its care for his welfare. The consumer, meanwhile, is scratching his head in puzzled fashion, and wondering •why it is that the prices of meat, bread, milk, clothing, and various other things that he needs more than suede shoes still keep up. And he will ask again, as he has asked several times already, why the Board of Trade keeps going after sellers of suede shoes, alarm clocks, and vaseline, none of which can be eaten or worn on the ’’'"back, and leaving severely alone such things as are necessary to sustain life, keep the body warm, and provide shelter from the elements. The Board of Trade recently, in a very injured tone,* deprecated the public harping on the alarm clock and vaseline matters, and protested that it had attended to quite a lot of other articles, and had “controlled” the prices of them. H’m! Also, rubbish! It has, we suppose, done some “controlling.” It has “controlled” the price of bread by putting it up. That is no fault of the bakers’ of course; the Board of Trade forget to “control,” or at least to “effectively control” the

price of wheat, and flour from which bread is made, and apparently the only way which it could see to remedy its neglect was to increase the price of the manufactured article. The Board of Trade came to Wanganui twelve months or more ago, and “controlled” the local price of meat. Its method of “control” was to raise that also. The Board has also “controlled” the price of sugar—from 3%d up to 6d. Oh! Beg the Board’s pardon! That was done by the Government. The Colonial Sugar Company could not raise it to 6d without putting the Board of Trade in the awkward position ■ of having to prosecute it for profiteering. So the Government temporarily took over the Company’s works and put the price up itself. It will hand the extra profit back to the Colonial Sugar Co., which will thus attain its objective without risk. And of course this “controlling” Board of Trade will not dream of prosecuting the Government! A nice little scheme! And a fine exposition of “control!” Reverting to the suede shoe matter, the prosecution of Dudley’s, Ltd., is not so much what we take exception to'. Suede shoes are a luxury, just as alarm clocks are not necessaries of life. Still if profiteering were to be allowed in luxuries and unnecessaries, those who deal in necessities might be tempted to change the nature of their businesses and go in for luxury articles, with the result that soon we would be able to get ,no necessities at all, or only very few. Let the Board of Trade go after the luxury articles if it choose, but let it go after the necessities first! To make fish of one and flesh of another is simply farcical. Moreover, if suede shoes were sold at £IOO a pair, it would hurt very few. What the public would like to see is for the Board to go after those who are keeping up the price of the materials which g6 to the making of the plain, ordinary, every-day boot. The Board seems unable to realise that the plain ordinary boot —an article of necessity—costs not much less than the suede shoe —an article of luxury. But the Board does not worry about the boot which the masses wear. It saves its face by going after the fashionable shoe which the wealthy or extravagant wear. And it calls this “control,” and the “suppression” of profiteering. Look at the price of meat today! Based on saleyard cost, plus overhead charges, efficient, and businesslike administration and handling ought to enable it to be sold at not more than 7d or 8d per lb all round, perhaps less, and still leave a reasonable profit. Based on the actual cost of the meat’s production, it could certainly be sold for less. But the Board of Trade, not considering the people’s food within its jurisdiction, fusses about with vaseline instead, and leaves the unfortunate butcher to bear the odium which, in 99 cases out of 100, he does not deserve. Will anyone, even this precious Board of Trade, believe for one moment that tweeds, and other articles of clothing are sold at a price showing only a reasonable advance on the cost of production and landing, or that the amount it costs to build a house is not far higher than it ought to be? Or that the price of money is not placed higher than the financial corporations are justified in placing it ? Or that a whole tribe of middlemen, and combines, and corporations, and speculators stand between the producer and manufacturer on the one hand and the retailer and consumer on the other? The Board of. Trade knows it all right; so does the Government. But the Government is in power to do the bidding of big vested interests, and it has no intention, nor does it dare, to disobey its masters. But it must, of course, do something to keep the crowd quiet; hence that farcical piece of camouflage, the Board of Trade, which resolutely avoids the matters the people are vitally interested in, and “controls” prices usually by putting them up.