STATE AND BUSINESS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 86, 21 January 1938, Page 6

STATE AND BUSINESS.

STATEMENT TO PRESIDENT.

COMBATING TRADE RECESSION

(United Press Association—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, January 19.

Fifty of the nation’s business leaders presented Mr Roosevelt with a statement promising their co-operation in combating business recession, but demanding a radical revision of the President’s Wages and Hours Bill, and a truce with the public utility companies.

Mr Roosevelt was cautioned against a general purge of holding companies and against any further tinkering with the currency. The statement concluded with an expression of faith 111 the efficacy of the principles of democracy. Mr Roosevelt said the Government was seeking a simple machinery by which the policies could be formulated. He insisted that Congress must pass the Wages and Hours Bill. The quarrel with public utility companies, lie said, was only with the recalcitrant 15 per cent. Labour unions should voluntarily make public their receipts and ex/ penditures in the same way as under the British system. It is authoritatively stated that the immediate objective of Mr Roosevelt’s business conferences is the creation of a national planning council to overcome business recession. The council will comprise elements not only from, the geographical standpoint but from "big” and "little” business, labour, finance, distribution, agriculture, transportation, credit investors, and consumers.

It will thus be representative of the active productive life of the nation. The council, it is understood, will he informal and will not need to lie sanctioned by Congress.