ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4008, 4 February 1938, Page 6

ECONOMIC RECOVERY

SCANDINAVIA SETS THE STANDARD.

CO-OPERATION POLICY. It might not be inappropriate to offer a rapid summing-up of the impressions of my trip to Scandinavia, says a writer in the “Christian Science Monitor.” I wanted to see how the economic problems confronting America are being handled by these sturdy democracies. My conclusion is that solutions in one country do not necessarily furnish an argument in favour of their transplantation to another. This might seem an obvious conclusion. But panacea hunters in hailing new ideas adopted elsewhere, make no allowance at all for this coefficient. Even in the loose group known as Scandinavia, policies have been adapted to suit national characteristics and make-up. Take, for instance, Sweden and Finland. These countries show the most recovery, not only in Scandinavia, but in the world. And yet Sweden has had a ~ew Deal and Finland has been content with its Old Peal. Sweden, that is to say, has gone in for spending its way out of depression; Finland for saving economy, and costcutting. Logically, I had to find some common denominator other than either the New or the Old Deal to explain their success. This denominator was the tremendous call upon Swedish and Finnish production for the materials for British rehousing and for world rearmament. For any Scandinavian Government, the problems of administration that even Mayor La Guardia has to tackle in New York city would be monumental. Scandinavian problems are relatively pocket-sized. Moreover, most of those peoples are homogeneous, and probably for that reason, extremely self-disciplined. These qualities ease the problem of administraiton as well as government. To give one example among many, Sweden does not put out an index “velocity of circulation,” or spending turnover. Ivar Booth, Governor of the Bank of Sweden, says that it is not necessary. Apparently, the Swedes are normal or stable spenders, rain or sunshine. In contrast, on my return to America, I found the monetary authorities worried lest the spending habits of mercurial Americans respond adversely to the business decline. Now there are reports of income hoarding. Praise for Britain. One often reads accounts of what we can learn from Scandinavia about managed money. The economists should give their praise to Britain. For all the Scandinavian moneys are tied to the pound, so that the Bank of England has taken the place of gold as the parent of monetary Scandinavia. On the British market the Swedes depend for their prosperity. Even if they wished to hoe a monetary row of their own, instead of following Britain’s furrow, they might be deterred by Finland, which is Sweden’s strong competitor for British custom.

In the field of consumer co-opera-tives lessons must all be seen through ‘sieve of national characteristics. In Sweden consumer cooperatives have flourished in conditions which are totally absent from America. Medieval trading, absence of chain stores, no cash trading, lack of prestige for the individual met-

chant—in these circumstances the consumer co-operatives “took on.” The consumer co-operative movement will have a harder task in the United States. In England, indeed, the newer chain stores and cut-price stores are actually forging ahead at the expense of consumer co-opera-tives.

Farmers Work Together. The way in which the farmer has combined in most of these Scandinavian countries is an eye-opener. Britain is trying to copy the organisation. It is an uphill task because the British genius simply does not run in thac direction. They are good farmers, but non-co-operationists. .At one place in north England that I visited most of the local farmers were being hailed before the courts for not carrying out their contracts with a bacon factory. Such indiscipline would be unheard of in Scandinavia. In Denmark, in particular, the farmers work together as one man. The reason? Because they are really an expert association.