BALZAC ON BUSINESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19102, 22 February 1924, Page 8

BALZAC ON BUSINESS.

LORD INCHOATE’S PRECEPTS. TRADE UNION FOLLY. Tx»rd Inchcape, presiding at the annual meeting of the Peninsular and Orient Steam Navigation Company, said he had been in considerable snsietv lately, though never without hope, regarding the eafety of the most valuable ship they had in the fleet. She got caught without the slightest warning in a terrible typhoon,he proceeded. Fortunately, she was in charge of a veteran skipper named Asquith, who, funnily enough, had with him as chief officer a man named George, who also possessed an extra master’s certificate. Both these men had an intimate knowledge of the law of storms, and the ship emerged from the tempest without having a rope yarn damaged. The vessel’s name did not appear in the list of the company's ships, but it was written large in the annals of the P. and 0. Her name was Free Trade. Lord Inchcape said that apparently 30s for an eight-hours’ day was not considered a sufficiently high wage for an unskilled labourer at the docks, and the threatened them with a demand for a higher wage from February 1 next. The shipowners, in resisting such demands, were merely fighting for the public. It was the public who paid, and he sometimes wondered if this point of view received sufficient consideration. The remedy for unemployment, in hie judgment, was in the hands of the trade unions. If they, with their rules and regulations as to minimum rates of wages, restricted hours of labour, and limited output, were to stand aside and give economic conditions free play for a year or two, he believed the cost of production would come down and world markets would he found for an increased output of our manufactured goods. It was consummate folly to keep up nominal wages, to shorten hours, and restrict production, when to do so cost £50,000,000 a year in the shape of a dole to 1,000,000 idle people. BACK TO GOLD STANDARD. “I maintain that we should continue our policy of reducing expenditure and paying off debt. We should get back as speedily as possible to the gold standard, and 1 rejoice that the suggestion of a resort to inflation, with a view to maintaining prices, was immediately ruled out by Mr Baldwin. With economy in the public expenditure, we shall gradually get back to a sound position.” Lord Inchcape said he would not rule out Free Trade within the Empire such as the United States had within their borders, but considering that most of the British dominions depended to a very large extent on the revenue they derived from their high tariffs, he was afraid that for many years to come inter-Empire Free Trade could not be a practical proposition. If the Labour Party ever formed the Goveminent of this country, Lord Inchcape said, they would have reached that position by strictly constitutional means, and they would be entitled to the consideration and fair play which British Ministers expected and deserved. “I think w© can trust the common sense of the Labour leaders to keen their wild men in order and not to play the wrecking game. I have a great faith in the sobering effect of responsibility.’’

Lord Inchcape said that some precepts which he found in Balzac years ago still held the field in business. They were: "Don’t heat the. bush for others." “Trust no one farther than you can see him.”

“Never say what yon do, but always do what you say."

“Keep your hands to yourself, and the same with your puree.” “Sell your jewels for more than they cost you.”