STATE CONTROL OF INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21449, 15 April 1935, Page 11

STATE CONTROL OF INDUSTRY

EXTENSION PROPOSED IN CANADA

royal commission report (UNITED riIESS ASSOCIATION —£1" F.LECTIUC TELEGRAPH— COPYRIGHT.) (Received April 14, 5.5 p.m.) OTTAWA, April 12. Long steps in the direction of State control of industry and commerce, instigated with the twin objectives of ensuring workers and primary producers larger returns and of protecting consumers against profiteering, were recommended in the report of the Royal Commission on price spreads and mass buying which was tabled in the House of Commons yesterday.

The main point of the majority report is the setting up of a Federal Trade and Industry Commission composed of five members, a semiautonomous body clothed with wide powers for supervision, regulation, arbitration and investigation and serving as an advisory body to the Government in all matters relating to trade and industry. A reduction of hours of work, with a uniform 44-hour week all over Canada, is recommended, together with strictly-enforced minimum wage laws. The report states that unless flour-milling companies write down their capital structures and the capital values of their surplus capacity they will face bankruptcy. The minority report recommends lower tariffs, increased foreign markets and less Government interference in business.