| <trailer><p> <Labor Call, 11 February 1915,> 
| <pb n="2"> </p></trailer>
| <headline><p> <The Brigands' Orgy.> 
| <THE WAY TO STOP IT.> </p></headline>
| <p> In spite of those blatant disciples of greed, 
| the newspapers that live to champion monopolies 
| against the people, "something will have to be 
| done" in the crisis of hard times now on 
| Australia. Neither reason nor right deter the 
| callous plunderers now in the zenith of their 
| glory. The people have one active agent in this 
| age <mdash>-</mdash> the power of the press. By it 
| redress can be won, and, at least, a degree of 
| fairness in rule ~~ for the people at heart are 
| always fair. If the claims of right are made 
| articulate, the power of the people will ever be 
| on its side. But the people require a lead, and in 
| the counsel of false teachers confusion arises, 
| and the public are unwilling arbiters that make 
| victims of themselves. So they are bled for the 
| betterment of a coterie of "inside" bandits and 
| sets of privilege. </p>
| <p> THE ARCH-JACKAL </p>
| <p> Victoria has a press that is its undoing. 
| Almost the whole multitude of the prints that are 
| issued in this State have a continual howl against 
| right, and in their clamor even conscience is of 
| little avail. But the arch-jackal of the pack is 
| the Melbourne <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo">
| "Argus." </title> Although its doctrines are 
| always refuted by facts <mdash>-</mdash> the logic 
| of time <mdash>-</mdash> it goes on vacuously to 
| denounce every claim for sympathetic rule, every 
| advocacy for the people's justice. Just now it 
| wastes its senile space in attacking those who are 
| anxious that the community be somewhat shielded 
| from the heartless deprecators who are exploiting 
| its food supplies. And the 
| <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo"> 
| "Argus," </title> in its lamentable 
| unworthiness, prates of what it calls the 
| inefficacy of "external regulation." According to 
| this authority, traders have but to be left alone 
| and the best that can possibly be, will be. It has 
| won its way on the present occasion. The food 
| supplies of the people have been manipulated as 
| well as the most vulture-minded motorist that ever 
| tooted his way through an enduring crowd to a 
| stock exchange could wish; and now we are to have 
| this garbling <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo">
| "Argus" </title> telling us this is the fair 
| operation of natural law. </p>
| <p> WHAT MAKES HIGH PRICES? </p>
| <p> What makes high prices in Australia just now is 
| something less omniscient than Nature; it is man 
| <mdash>-</mdash> a few men. Nature has not been as 
| bountiful here as is her wont, but her supply is 
| yet ample for current needs. Wheat is short in the 
| harvest, yet there was a sufficiency of this 
| staple grain in Australia to tide her people over 
| till the fields had once again been reaped. The 
| shortness of the 1914-15 harvest need have had 
| little actual relation to the prices of bread now 
| charged here, for the simple reason that it was a 
| shortage that only directly affected other 
| countries. It is true that the wealth the export 
| represents is a considerable factor in the 
| people’s prosperity, but that is so largely 
| because of the crude and inequitable system of 
| finance now obtaining. </p>
| <p> AN EXTREME OCCASION. </p>
| <p> The drought came at an extreme occasion, and 
| the visible supplies should have been kept here 
| <mdash>-</mdash> and accessible to the people. 
| This done it would have been seen that there need 
| have been little departure from the normal in 
| regard to prices. Meat is here in plenty, locked 
| up in cool chambers now for a large part; butter 
| is on hand to the extent that a continual export 
| is proceeding; and grain <mdash>-</mdash> there 
| was so much sent out of the country right on even 
| when drought was inevitably upon us, that a 
| shortage was an affair of the business men who are 
| the <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo">
| "Argus" </title> gods of good management. As 
| well as drought this is a season of war. But in 
| this respect the last scourge might have been made 
| to have a good effect. Even in England, where 
| Governmental action is slow, it was not tardy in 
| regard to the public interest when there was 
| apparent need of quick resource. Supplies were 
| commandeered or prices anchored to an equitable 
| basis by the Government, without even a protest 
| against the justice or necessity of such steps. If 
| Australians were too timid to act without 
| precedent there was a sufficient guide in Great 
| Britain to stop anything of hard criticism from 
| the little-souled agents of rapacity amongst us. 
| And some Australian Governments realised this 
| promptly. New South Wales especially was keen to 
| conserve the people's right. </p>
| <p> THE DEFEAT OF OURSELVES. </p>
| <p> Across the Murray definite action was taken. 
| Wheat was shortening in supply, and to keep the 
| public safe, the local Government, after at first 
| regulating selling prices, took possession of the 
| entire wheat stocks of that State. Meanwhile, with 
| a general election pending, Victoria had also 
| regulated prices of wheat, and at an advance on N. 
| S. Wales figures. This at once brought about 
| complications, the effect of which caused New 
| South Wales to raise its prices. Then Victoria's 
| Government, safely ensconced in office, played the 
| open game of perfidy, abolished regulation and so 
| wrecked, not only the hopes of Victorians, but the 
| well-made safeguards that had been raised by the 
| Labor Administration of New South Wales for the 
| well-being of its constituents. </p>
| <p> PERFIDIOUS VICTORIA. </p>
| <p> The play of trade between States is such that 
| prices in the one are guides of the other, and 
| supplies gravitate to the highest quote. 
| Victoria’s method was an open invitation to the 
| supply-sharper, and he quickly made good his 
| opportunity. Millers of New South Wales were able 
| to completely ridicule New South Wales 
| regulations, for, getting their stocks at, say, 
| 4/9, they had the Australian markets at their 
| mercy. In spite of the law, they were exporting to 
| the other States, and so ill is the constitution 
| that governs the Federation that this could not be 
| prevented. If Victoria had also taken possession 
| of the wheat <mdash>-</mdash> as well as of other 
| necessities <mdash>-</mdash> this bitter play of 
| disaster would have been prevented, and the people 
| should not at any time have been required to pay 
| abnormal prices for the necessities of life. </p>
| <p> It is safe to say that, were not the Victorian 
| Government entrenched in monopoly, two of the 
| staple foods of Australians <mdash>-</mdash> meat 
| and bread <mdash>-</mdash> would not now be 
| selling at famine rates and the holders of large 
| stocks of these commodities would not be bleeding 
| the people as bandits. </p>
| <p> That is the present position, and how can it be 
| altered? So far from alleviation there is likely 
| to be intensification. The 
| <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo">
| "Argus" </title> says bread <q> 
| </q> The 
| Australian Parliament is fettered by a brass-bound 
| constitution and only by the proclamation of 
| martial law can there be any effective action 
| taken there. </p>
| <p> EXTREME REMEDIES FOR EXTREME OCCASIONS. </p>
| <p> Are we to take the present position lying down? 
| Are Australians too pitifully futile to act even 
| under the spur of the most audacious bandits that 
| would sport on suffering? The occasion is 
| drastically heavy; cannot the remedy be sought in 
| extreme measures also? Not a particle of relief 
| shows on the horizon except martial law. Day by 
| day the grind of monopoly is going on, and in open 
| derision of the people its press is telling the 
| community that this must be, and worse remains 
| behind. </p>
| <p> The one way that offers is not a way that we 
| Australians are glad to use; but when every 
| ordinary means is at an end, are we to be so 
| pusillanimous as to fear the untried? The Federal 
| Government alone can now deal with the matter. 
| Under its direction martial law is called for. If 
| monopoly is not amenable to other forces, it must 
| be brought to book by this sole means. It is 
| compatible that we should demand that our common 
| supplies of life be fairly accessible to us. 
| Therefore we say to Victoria, <q> 
| </q></p> 
| <p> <mdash>-</mdash> <L.J. VILLIERS.> </p>