TRADE RECESSION IN AMERICA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22376, 13 April 1938, Page 21 (Supplement)

TRADE RECESSION IN AMERICA

“ BILLIONS OP DOLLARS LYING IDLE ”

RICH MEN SAID TO BE UNEASY

[THE PRESS Special Service.]

AUCKLAND, April 12,

Continued moves by Mr Roosevelt and his Administration to nationalise the principal utility companies in the United States h%Ve frightened American financial houses, according to Mr S. Kohn, formerly president of the Columbia Merchants’ Association, who is a passenger on the Empress of Britain. “Because of. this there has been a general recession in business since last November,” he said, “and it is no exaggeration to say that there are billions of dollars lying idle.” Mr Kohn said that the rich men of America were afraid to invest money in utility companies, because at any time the Government might take them over. In his opinion, the President had done more for the working classes of the United States than most of his predecessors, though admittedly it was costing the country a great deal of money, and the time must come when taxes would have to be increased to meet expenditure. Very rich men and those not quite so well off were being taxed according to their means to provide work for those less fortunately placed, and, generally speaking, the people were enjoying good wages and an appreciably high standard of living.

“In wages and living conditions, however,” Mr Kohn concluded, “it seems to me that America has little advantage over New Zealand. Whether your Socialistic experiments will work out is, of course, your concern, but like ourselves, the high standards you have set and the plans made by your Government for general betterment must be paid for. We are watching the situation here very closely, because we find that many of the policies approved by the Roosevelt Administration have already been endorsed and put into practice in the Dominion or are projected. Mr Roosevelt has made a great friend of the working man ,in my country, but he has made the rich man uneasy. His policy of the greater good for the greater number has not been without its repercussions.”