THE TARIFF BATTLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18547, 3 November 1923, Page 11

THE TARIFF BATTLE.

OPENING OF CAMPAIGN. MR. BALDWIN IN MANCHESTER PROTECTIONIST PROGRAMME EXPERTS PREPARING DETAILS. By Telegraph— Association—Copyright (Received 9.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, Nov. 1. Arrangements have been completed for the Prime Minister's two. speeches at Manchester, to-morrow. The huge Free Trade hall could be filled five times over. Mr. Baldwin is expected to review the question of Empire . cotton production. He said at Swansea that he was having the. details of his tariff proposals carefully, and thoroughly examined. The Morning Post says that this work is progressing,' and a committee of Ministers will soon be in possession of details for the protection of Home manufactures. LABOUR ACCEPTS ISSUE. PROTECTION TO BE FOUGHT. NO .CURE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reod. 9.6 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 1. The Labour Party's considered reply to Mr. Baldwin'has been issued in the form of a resolution adopted vby a joint meeting of the General Council of the Trades Union 'Congress and the Labour Party. The resolution calls on all members of Labour organisations to resist to the utmost the specious arguments of Protection and to press upon the electorate Labour's policy of work and wages with provision for the adequate, maintenance of the reserves 'of industry. This is to bo secured by international reconstruction and co-operation, national . reorganisation development and the putting into operation of Labour's general programme to meet crying social and economic ills as the only real alternative to Protection. Mr. J. Ramsay Mac Donald, leader of the Parliamentary Labour • Party, entertained at luncheon by his Labour, col- • leagues', said that the most important event ] since he went to tho Levant was Mr. Stanley Baldwin's change of battle tactics. He was uncertain . what Mr. Baldwin meant and how far jit was Mr. Baldwin's own or the'' Cabinet's .new policy. Had ; Mr. Baldwin nailed the Protectionist flag to the masthead, or only half-mast? Was it to be out and out protection or merely points'/thereof care'fully selected, not to save the country, but to give the Tories a good election cry? The unemployment evil In Britain had lasted four years, but the , Conservatives previously did not suggest protection as a remedy. Mr. Baldwin was like some Labour men, who* when "they could! not see their way out of their troubles, declared a general strike. . *: - Protection was not a cure for unemployment. It, was merely a. diversion— a hollow and ineffective proposition—but a magnificent method of sidetracking a serious problem. The coming fight would not be Projection versus Free Trade, but Protection versus the Labour policy. On the 5, whole he favoured . the open market, but even if .they..'had Protection there would still be all the problems centring •>i the Labour programme. The present state of. unemployment was only remediable by the reparation policy which Labour had advocated,for four,'years. Labour aimed at the development of Britain .and Ithe protection of her own market. Referring fib migration, he said that if the Dominions only took skilled men and' women they would weaken instead of strengthen Britain's vitality I and . industries, 'r--'.'; 'fe ■ *.' ,' ■'• ,'; '■ '' '•' Mr. A. Henderson, Labour M.P., speaking at Acton, said it was a tragic mockery; for Mr. Baldwin to r propose Protection as & solution of unemployment. Pro-" lection was offered, skilfully associated with a promise o» social reforms. The latter was the sugar coating of the Protectionist pill. . .. • The protection afforded to the workers by trades unipns was not a parallel to the protection of markets and industries. The Labour policy aimed at the establishment of equal standards in all industrial countries, intermit peace, and reconstruction. Mr. , Henderson added that ' fundamental reorganisation of industry was required before the causes of unemployment inherent/ in the present system of production for profit ;could. be removed. Labour : put thdse matters/ forward as a constructive alternative to a protective tariff, Imperial preference, % and State-aided ; migration r ' , " -r'