Evening Post. THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1937. CONTROL WITH CAUTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 100, 29 April 1937, Page 8

Evening Post. THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1937. CONTROL WITH CAUTION

Months were spent by the fruit and vegetable marketing committee in hearing evidence from producers, distributors, and others interested. A voluminous report has now been presented, recommending certain general principles of action, the detailed application of those principles (sometimes in an experimental form) and the aims to be pursued. In comparatively brief comment upon the report and recommendations, it is impossible to do more than discuss the main principles, with occasional references to details for the purpose of illustration. Even in discussing principles, moreover, there must be the reservation that the application of a general principle remains to be determined by the circumstances of a particular case. This consideration, we believe, must guide the Government course in acting upon the report. Control and. licensing (the governing principles of the report) may be justifiable and necessary with one branch of a greatly diversified industry, and unnecessary and harmful in another. This being so and caution being called for in the action taken upon the report, the empowering legislation should not immediately authorise far-reaching .steps. The committee has furnished facts. In the report and the evidence there is the material to work upon. The legislation should give authority for the next step, which must be more or less experimental, but it should not go so far as to empower wholesale and compulsory control. The report would appear to recommend this gradualness since it suggests that the control assumed by the Primary Products Marketing Department should in the first instance be formal. This is a first step —to set up an authority whose business it is to guide and advise. Such an authority will have to organise itself before it can set about organising an industry. This, we think, should present no great difficulty, as the Government has many experienced officers who know the facts and have the confidence of producers and distributors.; The first task of such a department will obviously be educational. —to show the producers why they are not prosperous and to convince them that they can do better by orderly co-operation. If this educational work, is thoroughly done, the organisation for production and marketing should be mainly upon a voluntary basis. There may be some need for compulsion in the background; but, at this stage, it seems that conflict would be avoided and quicker results obtained if it were made clear' that a full trial is to be made of voluntary methods, but that the Government expects results and will not stop if results are not given. It may be said that voluntary action has largely failed hitherto; lout will it fail if there is leadership and experienced advice? The powers to be given to the district marketing authorities raise a most difficult question. The consultative committee suggested comprises representatives of producers and distributors. District authorities would probably reflect this composition. Then where would the consumer come into the plan? The committee itself emphasises that there are two ' interests that must be paramount: the consumer and the producer. How is the consumer to secure his rights and have his doubts removed if the policy is apparently dominated by producing and distributing? 'It may be said that the committee of producers and distributors is to be consultative only, that the Marketing Department will watch the welfare of the consumer. But if the Marketing Department is always being advised and urged from one side, its task in holding the balance fairly will be difficult. In such circumstances it would be a mistake to clothe the district marketing authorities with too great powers until they have proved their fitness to use them. Where there is something resembling a statutory monopoly the tendency is usually to take what seems to be the easiest course —to say that low prices are due to the market being over-supplied and to reduce supplies. The consumer may take a wholly different view and declare that prices are too high. Until it can be shown that producers and distributors appreciate the importance of reasonable prices, in increasing consumption, great care will be necessary in giving controlling powers. The committee has emphasised that retail prices are too high. It proposes to" correct this by orderly marketing, strict grading'and packing, licensing of retailers, fixing rates of profit, and introducing a governing factor in licensed hawkers and street stands. Strict grading and packing are essential in any form of control and would probably remove many abuses. Without such standardisation it is impossible to compare production and profit returns. Licensing is a more doubtful step. At best it tends to create a vested interest; at worst it forms a privileged trust. Socially we regard it as undesirable, as it locks one more door against enterprise and protects the inefficient muddler as well as the competent tradesman. It would be better we think to apply

other measures first and judge what effect they have. In any case licensing would have to be accompanied by thorough supervision of the licensed shops, preferably by an authority which would have a strong consumer interest. Such supervision would certainly include an account of profit percentages, but here again a difficulty arises. A standard profit over the whole business' is not always best attainable by putting the same percentage on every line, without regard for the turnover in that line, perishable quality, the size of the average lots sold, and other factors which enter into the real cost of handling. The committee itself seems to have had its doubts about licensing and profit-fixing; for it has proposed hawkers, evidently as a means of checking. We think the system should have more consideration before it is applied. The committee has done its part well, in presenting the material facts fully and fairly. In suggesting that some of its recommendations call for more examination we do not disparage the remarkable work done. The task can only be completed by a body with a permanent organisation to investigate, advise, and experiment. A good start has been made in the thorough survey carried, out by -the committee. The important tiling, now is that the work should go on, but step by step. \