INCENTIVE IN INDUSTRY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 128, 15 March 1950, Page 3

INCENTIVE IN INDUSTRY

INVESTORS AS WELL AS WORKERS i (Rec. 9.30) LONDON, March 14. Incentives must be provided not only for workers but also for investors if British production was to be stimulated and efficiently increased, said the chairman of Hoover, Ltd. (Mr Charles Colston).. reviewing the company’s annual accounts. Mr Colston, who is also a member of the British Dollar Exports Board, said that the policy of dividend limitation added to increasingly punitive taxation had greatly discouraged investment in British industry. A continuation of this policy must do grave injury to the economic system. “It is argued that dividend limitation is necessary from the psychological and political points of view. Otherwise the trades unions will throw over the policy of wage restraints,” said Mr Colston. “I am not in favour of a rigid ‘wage freeze’ any more than I favour a rigid ‘dividend squeeze.’ We should not freeze industry with restrictions. We should stimulate it with incentives.” Mr Colston added that though the Government was right to urge manufacturers to increase their hard currency exports, exhortation was not enough. If a company succeeded in increasing its exports, particularly to hard currency areas and thus earned additional profits, its shareholders were entitled to some of t’he benefit.