The nonpartisan leader. [volume], January 06, 1919, Image 5

About The nonpartisan leader. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1915-1921

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
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The fourth of a series of 10 articles by Mr. Mills,
well-known writer and lecturer, on "New Zealand
Before the War."
BY WALTER THOMAS MILLS
N THE Australasian world rail
ways are not only publicly own
ed, but the nation itself, after
many years of experience, has
entirely abandoned the contract
system both in constructing the
roads and i^ the purchase of roll
ing stock and other equipment.
Railroads are built at a sav­
ing of from one-half to two-thirds the cost of their
construction under previous private contracts. The
rolling stock and the locomotives show a saving of
fully 50 per cent. The last American locomotives
purchased from privately owned American shops,
as compared with locomotives produced in the
state-owned shops at home, showed a cost of $400
per ton in the purchased locomotives, as compared
with $200 per ton in the cost of production in the
state-owned shops. Besides this there has always
been shown a very marked difference in the cost of
upkeep and in the life of rolling stock, always in
favtir of the state-produced equipment.
FORESTRY
.AND FINANCE ..Xv
Tree planting has been undertaken on quite a
wide scale. American pines planted more than a
quarter of a century ago in South Australia have
averaged a growth
of
1,000 feet of lumber for each
acre, for each year since the planting. -It is claimed
in New Zealand that the products of the govern
ment forests alone, during the next century, even
if no additional plantings are made, would pay off
the total national debt, interest and all. The New
Zealand debt represented then almost entirely in
vestments in productive property. A correspond
ing indebtedness in the United States jn proportion
to the population would mean an indebtedness of 45
billion dollars. This indicates how great'is the na
tional interest in the national forests.
In South Australia the government-owned forest
is equipped with a sawmill and its products manu
factured by the state and made directly available
a
COAL MINES AND
PACKINGHOUSES
Throughout both countries state-owned coal mines
are in operation. So far, however, they have pro
duced coal only for the use of the state-owned fail
ways, except that in New Zealand the'state product
was sold in the market, but only at prices fixed by
privately owned enterprises. The superintendents
of the mining plants in both countries have .offered
repeatedly to deliver coal for private use at one
half the current price charged if permitted to do so.
An Australian dairy herd. By having grater power in the government, the
farmers and other common people in Australia and New Zealand have'built up
their prosperity by state ownership of-marketing facilities to get their products
to market cheaply, and by stati banking methods which give money to actual
producers without bank profiteering and in larger amounts vY'*v' if,'*
8
available to the, farmer
States in Australia and New Zealand Successful in Business Operations for
the People-^-Many League Planks in Operation There
In South Austra
lia the government
has built and is
operating a plant at
the cost of $2,250,
000fc It manufac
re a
cheese, slaughters
and freezes lambs,
sorts and packs
wool, gorts, grades
and packs fruit,
puts the state seal
on every package
and guarantees its
contents. ThiS gov
ernment ships these
to
a
world. Ah advance
payment is made,
with a final ac
counting directly to
the farmers
sf
or
total returns less
the cost of the
service.
Since my return from
that country, in New
South Wales a $7,000,
000 government plant
has undertaken the same sort of service with the
same satisfactory results. It has enormously in
creased the prices realized by tfie farmers and has
at the same time greatly reduced the selling prices
to the consumers.
A BREAD AND
BUTTER QUESTION
In New South Wales the government has be
come the only grain buyer the grain is stored
in state-owned warehouses, shipped over state
owned railways, ground in stat£-owned flour
mills, baked in state-owned bakeries, and de
livered from state-owned shops, with the re-,
suit that the farmers have doubled the receipts,
for their harvests and the housewives have
secured bread, the same quantities as before, at
'one-half 'the previous prices,*and on last report
these lower prices for bread had prevailed
throughout the war.
Quite as remarkable has been the record of
achievement in the subdividing of the city lots,
building of the streets and sewers, and the con
struction of modern homes for working people. A
workingman who wishes to obtain one of these
homes may make a payment of $50 down and after
wards pay in monthly installments at a rate run
ning from one-half to two-thirds of what he would
be obliged to pay for a rented house with anything
like the same accommodations. He would pay out
in 25 years, and his
home will cost him
nothing as compared
with paying rent in
fact- it is cheaper, by
from one-third to one
half, for him to buy his
home than it is to rent
it.
'Si'•
In all of these under
takings these public en
prises hdve resulted in
a standard day's work
of eight hours. In
hazardous or especially
disagreeable tasks, like
underground work in
mud' and water, the,
working day is six
hours. Trade unioij
wages have" been secur
ed for-all workers and
•at the same time the
selling prices to con
sumers 'greatly decreas
ed. The same is true
of pa a re
freight rates, and es
pecially of excursion
rates, with free trans
portation r, school
chi 1 dren, fertilizers,
race, horses, stallions/
FTVE
faqb
A flock of South Australian sheep. In that state the government slaughters
and freezes the lamb and mutton for domestic use and export. It sorts and
packs the wool. Other state enterprises lower the cost of various steps in the
road from farmer to consumer. The result is that the farmer of South Austra
lia gets the world price less much lower costs and without the costs
of profiteering and wasteful or unnecessary middlemen.
bulls, boars, and members elected to parliament.
In every instance the building of railways and
wharves, thfe opening of mines, the building of
packing houses, flour mills and bakeries, have not
only reduced the selling prices, but at the same
time these enterprises pay the cost of their own
construction,out of their, own earnings, and in this
way they cost the nation nothing in fact, as the
nation appropriates considerable proportions of the
earnings of these enterprises for public purposes,,
it is costing the national governments less to build
and own and operate these enterprises than it
would cost them not to do so.
So far as I know these are the only countries
iwhich consume the highest grades of their own
products and make available for export only the
lower grades. It seems to be the only country
where the producers are prosperous enough so they
.. can afford to do this, and this has been made possi
ble only by the publicly owned enterprises.
DRAWBACKS TRACEABLE
TO PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
There are serious evils in connection with these
undertakings. Complaints made by unfriendly
critics are frequently based on facts, but after
four years' residence in the two countries and after
following -up any number of such complaints, I
found in every instance that they were based on
either survivals of old abuses taken over with' the
business from previous private owners or on 'the
results of private interests still in control of some
share of the public service.
No one in New Zealand is misled by these com
plaints. In every instance it is contended''by the
progressive people who are on the ground, that
these disadvantages are not because of public
ownership, but for- lack of public ownership at
some point in the process of public service for in
stance, the railways were owned by the state the
steamship lines and ferryboats were in private
hands. Transportation frequently involves the use
of both kinds of shipping service.
BUILDING A CITY
FOR THE jPEOPLE
The evils ^f the transportation system are
traceable to the expenses and to the political
power of the privately owned steamship com
panies. There is no demand whatsoever that
the railways shall be turned over to the steam
ship companies, but the demand is urgent, and
in Australia it has since been accomplished,
that the steamship lines be turped_ over to the
railways.
When the government of New Zealand opened
up a state-owned mine at Runanga, the state first
of all established a sawmillr Here it produced the
timbers for the mine and the lumber for building
houses for the miners.
The houses were rented at reasonable rates, but
both houses and lots were sold to miners and others
(Continued on page 14)
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