MR. SCULLIN FIRM

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1931, Page 12

MR. SCULLIN FIRM

INFLATION OPPOSED w -L t ' i "uf ■STIMULATING INDUSTRY.' | <|' RESTORATION OF CONFIDENCE. Some members of the Labour left wing profess to find encouragement iu certain passages of the speech of Mr. J. H. Scullin, Prime Minister of Australia, at Ashfleld, notably his reference to “proper control of credits,” to the need for bank advauces to assist industry and to the statement about a note issue of £20,000,000 as a temporary expedient pending the raising of a loan. But the fact remains that he definitely took up the gage of the inflationists and. calmly defied the controllers of the party “machine.” The audience cheered him to the echo and one of the most intense advocates of inflation, who was listening in the wings walked away with an expression of disgust. “Many suggestions have been made in the present situation,” said Mr. Scullin. “My answer is that neither deflation nor inflation is the remedy. (Applause.) The remedy, in my judgment, as I see it, is to aim at restoration and stabilisation. During my visit abroad I .took every opportunity to meet all sections. In the industrial world I met many employers and employees, I met the leaders in the banking world, and I met the economic brains in London. I found that the more they knew about the subject the less certain they were about the remedy. REDUCTION AND INFLATION. ' “Let us • examine this gospel of recontinued Mr.. Scullin. “Mind you, I, don’t say that we should continue the extravagant course that was followed in the previous years. There was an artificial position, where some people werq doing too well and spending too mrjbli, both publicly and privately. “Fixed income would benefit,” said Mr. Scullin, “but property would decline. So property owners would suffer ■while bond holders ■would benefit. Wage earners on full time would benefit by lower prices.” Referring to inflation, Mr. Scullin said: —“I don’t want to mislead the workers who believe that there is an easy road to millions that will lead them to emancipation. Do you think I would refuse an easy road if it was there to travel. There is a danger in relying on the printing of notes—(prolonged cheering) —because that leads to wild inflation. When the currency is debased wages are debased, salaries and income are lost. That is the result of inflation. There is also the question of bank credit to consider. There is expansion of credit and restoration of credit according to the circumstances, and sometimes these things are entirely controlled by banks which do not always have very much relation to public requirements. It has been necessary to examine the gold position, and there is hope that something will be done of an international character to meet the position. It was alarming that two nations should be able to control the bulk of the gold reserves and have a deleterious effect upon the rest of the world. Inndustry can be retarded or stimulated by bank credit. Any expansion of bank credit must be used for production, and, of course, under strict control.” NOT POLITICAL CONTROL.

A Voice: Political control? Mr. Scullin: No; proper control. A conference of the Loan Council is to be held next March to devise a three-years’ plan, to attack the problems that confront us, working toward, the balancing of the ledger. Whatever may be the outsome of the conference, that is the programme that I will set before my colleagues. We must work to some plan to secure confidence among our people. The immediate problem is to restore confidence in Australia. (Cheers.) That is what I meant when I said that the Press and the public, with Governments, can play their part. . Now is the time when we w r ant some credit overseas. A loan overseas would infuse new life into this country. I did much to try and get it. A Voice: If you stick to your guns you will get it. Mr. Scullin: I have never laid down my guns yet. (Cheers.) Nobody is asking me to lay down my guns, and I want to say to this vast audience: Pay little heed to the rumours that . are abroad v-hich are designed, to split the Labour Party. (Applause.) . Continuing, Mr, Sullin said that an infusion of new capital in Australia would be like an infusion of blood into a s;ck patient. It would increased purchasing powers, increase revenue, and they would then be on the hisk road to recovery. THE LOAN PROGRAMME. “We have already outlined a loan programme for this year of £15,000,000. If we made a special appeal to stand together on good lines we could add to that immediately £5,000,000 or £6,000,000 for works. We will go into that matter at. once, and get into touch with the banks of Australia. We must have co-operation. The works could then be carried out on loans from the savings of the people. Banking advances are in a different category. Bank advances can be made, and where there is ability by the banks to make advances for marketing our goods, increasing production, mining, and manufacturing that is the stimulus we want. That is our forward, policy. “It is said we have failed by a certain inaction, that is an accusation against every Government in the world to-day. We have not been inactive. We may not have been as active as we might have been. Whatever is said about activity or-inactivity, I could not have been any more active than I have been. (Applause.) I have lived ten years in one. (Applause). I will stick to the job I have beer put to as long as I am wanted to carry it out on lines true to Labour principles. If somebody else can do it better, I will not make any noise about it at all. I do no-t say that with any significance behind it. I say that in answer to those who suggest that I would trim and do things to hold it. I xvould not and will not do that, and I want to add that I have not yet met anyone in the Labour movement who wants me to do it. “I gave an undertaking when I landed in Sydney this morning that this Government will take the responsibility and will do nothing that will ruin Australia,” he concluded. “This Government represents the great toiling masses of democracy —ruin to Australia would be ruin to them. The situaution is a serious one, but it is not a hopeless one. With sane and sound' and progressive action, with full Government responsibility, calamity will be everted, confidednddeed ddwidldl dbe restored, business will be stabilised, and unemployment will be grappled with.” (Loud and prolonged applause).