COUNCIL OF INDUSTRY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20076, 4 November 1930, Page 16

COUNCIL OF INDUSTRY.

ITS AIM AND HOPES. SIR W. MORRIS'S STATEMENT(PROM OT7R OWV COB.BESPDWDENT.) LiONDON, September 25. Tha call from the heads of British industry for the formation of a National Council of Industry and Commerce "to further by all possible means the economic and financial prosperity of Great Britain" has created very wide interest. The reason for bringing the National Council into existence has been further developed by.Sir William R. Morris (chairman). "We have in England," he said, "the best workmen in the world. They are crying out for a leader. During the past decade we have suffered from a system of government that has not helped but has hampered industry. Post-war and pre-war business conditions differ enormously, yet the Government is still run on the lines of the old political shibboleths, which continue because the leaders think of party matters first and business afterwards. The aim of the National Council of Industry and Commerce is to emphasise the necessity for the Government of this country to be run on business lines.

"The British workman is tired of futile politics. At heart he is not Socialistic, or Communistic, and the old partisanship has gone by the board. The crying need of the British workman • to-day is for employment and wages—not the dole —and it is impossible for an article manufactured by the foreigner to give employment or wages for British labour. "The obvious answer is Protection," continued Sir William, "and 1 for one shall not be satisfied until a full measure of safeguarding is given to every one of our industries that is suffering from' competition from imported manufactured goods, and the awful bogy of unemployment is thus stamped out. Protection does not lead to high prices. The motor-car industry for one gives proof of that fact. We must import fewer manufactured goods and create productive work in our own country, which can only be done by the introduction of a proper fiscal system of Protection. Cheap production, by which-is meant highly organised and. intensively operated methods of production, 'automatically leads to high wages, and there is no doubt in my mind that a properly organised system of Protection would lead to an increase in -the average rate of British workmen's wages, besides employing more men,, and ultimately producing cheaper goods for home and export. The motor-car industry, again, is an example of this basic truth. "One of the most potent events which has taken place recently has been the swing-over of the Trades Union Congress towards the policy of " Protection; The days of Free Trade are gone. We have had ten years of floundering in the mire of political mismanagement, and the National Council of . Industry and Commerce is about tp be formed in an endeavour to prove that this country must be run on busi-ness-like lines if it is again to be prosperous. "In Britain we have the finest materials in the world. Our population is capable of working - enthusiastically and efficiently. They are sportsmen to a degree and, . given. sound leadership and freed from the fog of party politics, could turn tire present state of depression into a boom that would see Britain once again in a pre-eminent position in the world."