ECONOMY COUNCIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 18

ECONOMY COUNCIL.

GOVERNMENT OF CHILE.

Formation proposed in bill.

SANTIAGO, (Chile.)

A council of economy has been proposed by the ( hilian Government to be consulted by ( ongress on legislative projects affecting business and industry as an effective guarantee against * the growth of bureaucracy.

I'uriiiation of the council was proposed in a Government bill sent to Congress. It is aimed to make "directly available all resources of technical knowledge and practical experience" in the drafting of future legislation.

The law. if enacted, might prove the thin end of the wedge of corporate government. President Arturo Alessandri, who has an international reputation for parliamentary government based on elective democracy, admitted readiness for a partial corporative cxperimeiit when last addressing the combined session of Congress.

He considered it essential, he said, to give legal status to the economic council, because the complexity of production and distribution justified a

"world tendency toward technical inter vention in dictation of laws."

He favours the two chamber democratic system, but would like at least one-third of the Senate to be. formed of •"representatives of production, trade and vital national forces." There is resistance to such an experiment, but the producers' organisations are satisfied with the present bill as a start.

The council is to contain representatives of agricultural and manufacturing associations, chambers of commerce, credit institutions, transport services and public utilities. The State will be re Ji re sen ted through the officially controlled banks for the stimulation of production and the amortisation bank. There also will be representatives of white collar workers, including journalists, doctor*, lawyers and engineers. Labour will have a voice through its syndicates.

Any Government biU with economic implications must be submitted to the council which, within thirty days, can present its observations and proposed modifications for the legislature. It is presumed, though it has not yet been made clear, that the amendments would be sponsored by the Government.

Although its function is purely consultative, the proposed council has been accepted l>y the producers as something to bridge the gap between private and official quarters in legislation affecting business and industry.

Increased government intervention in the taxation of business aroused a spirit of revolt among producers which the Government is anxious to conciliate. The council was proposed as a first step toward closing the chasm between the spending authority and the producers, upon whom the whole complicated structure of bureaucracy rests.