FREETRADE PASSING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21032, 22 May 1930, Page 15

FREETRADE PASSING.

■ MR BALDWIN AND FOREIGN - . ; DUMPING. UNEMPLOYMENT INCREASING. HALF A MILLION IN’ NINE MONTHS. (From Otje Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 10. . Mr, Baldwin continued his political campaign at Manchester this week, when he; spoke to a large audience 'in' the FrSe, Trade -Hall. ' He said that the Labour Government had dealt- with "unemployment. They added half a million .to the' unemployed in nine months—no mean performance.— (Laughter.) Mr Snowden has stated categorically in the House ' of Commons,” added Mr •Baldwin, “that there is a conspiracy at work, a conspiracy on the part o£ the employers of labour. . I suppose the. employers of labour are closing down tlieir, works and losing their money to spite the Labour Government;—(Laughter. ) No more childish charge was fever invented. “ The uncertainty which is so bad for business has been created largely by this Government who refuse to say what they are going to do in regard to safeguarding and preference. “ But all this talk of theirs does not minimise the gravity, of the situation, and the question arises now with far greater insistence than .it - presented itself last May? What is tq be done? ' . BRITISH DUMPING GROUND. ~ “ Look for a moment at the world we live in. It is a very different world from the pre-war world. Protection on the Continent and America is more rampant than ever. _ New nations are more nationalist in their outlook and their aspirations than were the old nations before the war. Rationalisation, of which we have heard so much lately, is practised more in certain Continental countries than in Great Britain, with the result that in many countries they have increased output and to a certain extent unemployment. The first fruits of rationalisation are that it makes It essential for them to put their surplus manufactures somewhere. Where can they put them? The only market open to them and to every country with rationalised industries and a surplus is Great Britain. And into Great Britain they are coming, and will come. “ There is no sign at all of any country in Europe reducing its tariffs. They are nervous of the United States of America sharing equally in the benefits of favoured nation clauses with them. There-is - jea mV sy in Eur °Pe of that great country. They are looking more and more to making treaties among themselves, giving each other advantages where it pays them and reducing tariffs in that way—tariffs by international' and interlocking tariff treaties. "That is a very dangerous position for us because, I ask myself where do we come in? We have no power to make treaties with anybody, for. we have nothing to give them. We have no power at present to keep the surplus goods of Continental countries out of this countryl “ Are wo going to watch the countries in Europe enter into ' tariff agreements, and are we going to watch our own dominions make tariff agreements with Continental States, but continue to be left out? CHANGE IN LANCASHIRE. “The most significant feature to-day is the change that is coming over the opinion in Lancashire.-;-(Cheers.) “ We are seeing the last for good or for ill of the laissez faire which has dominated our politicians for three generations. . The age of Freetrade is passing, is passing because no hew Freetraders are Being born to-day.— (Cheers.) In 10 years their sole representatives will be a number of old gentlemen burning incense to the gods of their infancy.— (Laughter.) “The freedom of Freetrade was freedom which meant the survival of the fittest, and the weakest went to the wall. The ,workers of this country for the last two generations have been safeguarded in every respect but one—health, pensions, and wages. But there is no safeguarding against foreign competition of an unfair nature. “ Why not? That is the most essential fact in the workers’ lives. “ That is the -last remnant of laisscx faire, and it has got to he stripped off and stripped off quickly. The weapons to use are safeguarding and the economic unity of the British Empire.”—(Cheers,) Later,. Mr Baldwin asked: “Are you going to see unemployment growing at the rate of 500,000 in nine months, or are yon going to have safeguarding? ”