LABOUR AND WOOL TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17828, 8 July 1921, Page 7

LABOUR AND WOOL TRADE.

nationalisation advocated CLINGING TO A PHRASE. A. and N-Z. LONDON, July 6. A committee representing the Parliamentary Labour Party. the Trades Union Congress, and the co-operative movement has been engaged in formulating a. scheme for the nationalisation of the wool textile industry. The report suggests that the principal raw material be purchased' by the State. Government buyers would enter the world's markets and purchase the industry's requirements, private trading being made illegal and importation, except on Government account, forbidden. The State would arrange for transport, freight-, storage, and distribution. and would assume power to acquire the industry, but would not fully exercise that power immediately, though it would control profits of privately owned sections with such other control as proved necessary to ensure efficiency in the working of unacquired firms. The report provides for a, Ministry of Wool and Textiles. The Manchester Guardian, commenting on the scheme, says: " There are special reasons for public ownership of mines and railways, but even these should bs dissociated as for as is possible from State management. That the woo! trade proposal should be made after the last seven years' experience shows how men cling to a phrase. The war has changed much, and it has tilled State Socialism."