THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1934. INDUSTRIAL GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22213, 16 March 1934, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1934. INDUSTRIAL GERMANY

The statements in our cablegrams of yesterday concerning the regimentation of industry in Germany make interesting reading. Herr Philip Kessler, an electrical engineer, lias been put in control of the whole of German industry, which has been divided into twelve trade groups. In addition to the purely manufacturing groups such ancillary avenues of trade as banking, insurance, transport, and others have also been brought into line under the supreme head of the Minister of Commerce, who in announcing Herr Kessler’s appointment stated that “ the days, when the manufacturer and the banker were independent had departed. Germany’s industry was now on a leadership basis and must obey orders in the interests of the community.” Having taken stock of the whole industrial and producing system in Germany, Herr Hitler is apparently how proceeding to marshal his forces in a big bid for efficiency in the distribution of the varied output of manufactured goods which that country can produce. The German flair for evolving trained specialists and experts is now to receive intensive demonstration in the industrial field. While it could not be said that Germany had overlooked the rationalisation of industry which was proceeding in other countries, her system of cartels and trade associations being proof of her advance in this direction, it is clear that she has recently realised that there was still too much of “ laisscz faire ” in her export methods. The Minister of Commerce admits that hitherto every business concern has gone its own way, but in the future individual effort must be used for the common good. The new system does not mean the socialisation of industry, because private profits are to be left untouched, but courts are to decide the legitimacy of competition, and where it is found that uneconomic competition is in existence steps are to be taken to ensure that this is eliminated and manufacturers brought into line. Small manufacturers are not to be sacrificed to their bigger competitors, but insistence will be laid on planned production and controlled distribution. Great Britain at the present time is endeavouring to negotiate with Japan on the matter of the textile industry, but the success of the negotiations remains still. somewhat

problematical. While Japanese competition is affecting British industry seriously at the present time, yet it is apparently not comparable, in the view of the London Chamber of Commerce, to the competition which may be expected from State-controlled German industry. In the course of an interview in July of last year the secretary of the London Chamber stated that “In February of 1934 Germany's condition would be so critical that she would be obliged to declare all foreign trade a State monopoly. She would then sell her goods abroad as a nation, not as individuals, and with the foreign currencies thus acquired would buy her necessary imports. There would be no exchange rate for the mark, just as there is no exchange rate for the rouble.” The conclusion was drawn that the addition of Germany to the ranks of those nations “ which for one reason or another are enabled to undersell the Western nations with higher standards of living” would bring still nearer the time Avhen the need for a reformed system for the exchange of services between nations must be recognised. “ Japanese competition,” it was added, “is a landslide: German competition would be an avalanche,” and a contrast was drawn between the position with Germany’s industries only, so to speak, mai’king time, and the change likely to follow when orders were given for the manufactured goods for export to the full measure of her production capacity. To an extent such a forecast, even as regards the point of time, appears already to find verification as almost uncannily accurate. A prospect of its fulfilment to the letter must raise the question of what Britain and other countries are going to do to counter a possible deluge of German goods on the world’s markets. It was a fairly early declaration on Herr Hitler’s part as Chancellor that the duty of the Nazis did not consist in looking round for something left to revolutionise but “in work, work, and again work.”