Grey River Argus TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1927. THE HUSBANDING OF INDUSTRY.

Grey River Argus, 1 March 1927, Page 4

Grey River Argus TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1927. THE HUSBANDING OF INDUSTRY.

i Front his prediction of better limes iur the Dominion oir his rei nrii from the Old Country, the reason since vouchsafed by the I’i'ime .Minister lias been far from reassiiring, namely, the application there of the best brains to industry. Possibly those brains will increase the tendency towards a protective tariff, and it is doubt - ful H the Concessions lor Dominions will prove very valuable. As things are, Argentine and other foreign competitors run give the Dominions a start and a beating in many direct ions on 1 he Brit isii market, which, it appears, from llii' industries Fair, the Home producer is now going to exploit more t Im 11 ever for his own pari ieular benefit. The only advanlami tinpress nl I rend of economie 1 hmighl in Britain cun have for us must be to induce us io supply as many of our owll needs as we possibl v c-'ii. The import ing interests will deny this, but they are reallv akin to lhe financial interests -which in .America have forced lhe Preside.nl, 1 heir ver-11 able ,ser\ ant, 1 o \-(do a measure which would will; Slate financial aid. tide 1 ho farming classes over hard limes. British economists in their study of industry are insisting upon lhe notorious fact that the nionny-mak-ing philosophy spells eventual economic and social decay. For instance, England to-day shows a growing divorce of product ion from consumption. This ami the capitalisls’ <|'lest for cheaper and cheaper labour have bred a chronic antipathy between Um monopolists of capital and lhe proletariat. The workers are seeking to maintain the relative value of the only commodity they luive Io sell, but in order 1o prevent them manipulating labour as a monopoly so complete as the monopolies of other commodities, lhe capitalists are to-day using legislative means 1< lake away the political as well as t he economic freedom of 1 he prole lariat. It would probably turn out I .ir better for this country if 1 he head ol t lie (I overt nn ent pinned far less faith on what 1 hey do in England and far more on what we . o in New Zealand for the working out of better times here- Britain is becoming- a protect ioiiisl country ami so should our own After being in theory a free trade <-<uiiil i-v for nearly a century, Brit aiti has come to doubt the wisdom of such a policy. Two generations of economists preached it, and j

discredited the Into Joseph Chamberlain's protect ion ism. and Cham berlain, willi all Ids keenness and debuting- power, made no impression en the pontiffs, for they were backed up at the polls by the working- classes who only wanted one thing, cheap food, and that Chamberiain was unable Io promise them. He laboured too, lindei another am! a heaxier handicap in that he was ittiable to carry the Dominions with him in his advo e.acy of an Im peria 1 “ Zollverein. This blow to the cause of Jarili reform was ascribed at the lime to the Free Trade orthodoxy of lhe Dominion I’rcmier.s. quite falsely, because the lai i er were co convinced of the necessity of protecting their own immature Indus! ries that they would not have Free Trade, even within the Empire. Free Trade uiis dei'endecl by the British Liberal Party because Liberalism looked for support from the tintniifaeturing classes, who in their turn wanted cheap raw materials. Liberals were quite earcless of the fact that Free Trade has desl'-oyed English agriculture, for Liberals have never understood. and have alva.vs distrusted the farmers, their eonseieiie.es pul to sleep by the.false principle Hint it does not mat ter whet l;er a man grows corn or controls cinemas, so long as he makes money. To the man it ]>ossibly does not niatter; but to the nation it matters a great deal. The most significant fact is the changed altitude of Briilsh Labourites. Till recent years, the irude uiiioiiists never saw thal almost every single object for which I hey fought and st rove was a virtual denial of lhe principles of Free Trade- However, that phase of Ihe coni t-ovt rsy is over. " Alr Whcailey shattered the- united front when he called for th.- exclusion of ealed goods, while M I s'.uowdeii is <pii!e ready to igilore the exist elu-e of swell ted goods so long as he '-an import utdaxeit wheal, li is very English that af-li-r nearly a century of talk the cleavage should some about on a straight question of tael, witli no reference io all the previous academic arguments. So far as Ne'-v Zealand worki rs are eoiieernefl, we believe the majority would consider the assuri'd maintenance of > good wage level, not 1o mention 11) • provision ol' a bel ter loca i marlci-l for pi-imiiry j>i-o<lucls, like wheal, a Justification for a reasonable degree ol tariil pretection. The capitalist opponents of protection in this c.onulry use as a leading argument the eontentior llmt it artificially keeps up some wages, and provides so 'many varieties of employment that the surplus of labour for leading industries is not large enough. What we want is no! to ar! i I'icially in-

crease machine productimi beyond a proper bale neo, but what is the ideal is to have a proper balance, so that we shall ourselves supply ns lunch as possible ol' onr own needs. The la riff should be designed to that end.