The Daily News TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1929. DEVELOPING INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1929, Page 8

The Daily News TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1929. DEVELOPING INDUSTRY.

When moving in the House on Friday last for the appointment of a Select Committee to consider, during the recess, the question of increasing the efficiency and development of certain industries and trades, the Hon- J. G. Cobhe asserted there had been an insistent demand in the House and from manufacturers for what had been described as “an industrial development committee/’ but though it had not been possible to grant that request, he considered that the small practical committee he then proposed would “meet the demand to some extent.” It is not surprising that the Leader of the Opposition desired some indication as-to the form the inquiry was to take, but his search for information failed to elicit much more than an expression of confidence on the part of the Minister that the committee would be able to bring down recommendations of considerable value. At the same. time, he plainly intimated that it was not expected the committee would be able to teach the industries in question their own business, though it might be able to render assistance in the form of suggestions for increasing efficiency and in relation to advertising methods. When, therefore, it is realised that the particular industries referred to by the Minister include coach and motorbody building, engineering, blacksmithing, rope and twine works, fruit preserving, jam making, woollen and clothing industries, the full sense of the Minister’s optimism becomes manifest, while the Minister stands revealed as a political humourist of high rank. Even though the expense of such an inquiry may not be a further strain on an unbalanced budget, in the face of Mr. Cobbe’s admission that the committee cannot be expected to teach these industrialists their business, what, it may be asked, can such a committee do towards developing these industries that could rfot be achieved by the respective industrialists immediately concerned? Nothing more Gilbertian has crept into politics during the last two decades than the custom of delegating to committees or commissions the solution of problems which distinctly belong to trades and industries. The fundamentals of all business success are governed by certain economic laws that cannot be flouted with impunity. In seeking State aid of any kind for forwarding the interests of any industry or trade it is customary to place in the foreground of the reasons advanced for that aid being supplied that the livelihood of so many workers is at stake, but when the matter reaches bed-rock it is generally found that the costs of production are such as to cause the output value to be so excessive as to prevent sales. It is interesting to note how the Labour extremists view the relationship between employers and workers. Speaking at Hull recently, Mr. Ben Tillett, chairman of the Trade Unions’ Council, asserted sthat the curse of working-class psychology was that it had a wage-slave complex and hereditary taint of centuries of economic wage-slavery. He contended that capitalist evolution moved apace, and while the hackneyed cry of capitalism perishing by attrition was the stupid cry of the reckless, “it was becoming more and more important in our civilisation because of its organising genius.” In that pronouncement is to be found one of the main factors in all business success, the others being co-operation and efficiency. It is no use for any employers to lean upon the State for protection, for subsidies or any other form of aid, more especially

for the provision of organising genius. Labour fully realises that nothing but the development of u organising genius within its ranks will suffice to develop the strength that will give parity and resistance to which its leaders ascribe > the present one-sided development of capitalism. It may be, as Mr. Tillett claims, that the workers will have to read financial news, banking news, price news, and ? even share news with more avidity 51 than they read all news relating to sports before they can organise effectively, for there can be no doubt that the struggle of the future will be the study of great economic advances that are being made possible by rationalisation, by organisation, by co-operation, 5 and by efficiency. Taking a serious view of the problem of promoting industrial development, there appears to be no room for , a divergence of sound views afc to , the waste of time and energy, let . alone the expense, attendant upon investigations such as those to be undertaken by the committee mentioned by Mr. Cobbe.