The Waikato Times With which le incorporated The Waikato Argus- MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1931. DEFEATING DEPRESSION.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18349, 8 June 1931, Page 6

The Waikato Times With which le incorporated The Waikato ArgusMONDAY, JUNE 8, 1931. DEFEATING DEPRESSION.

Once a year the leaders of British banking emerge from their financial seclusion and take the opportunity afforded by general meetings to survey the wide field of International trade and credit. The careful analysis of the causes qf the present trade problems given by Mr F. C. Goodenough has been followed by timely words from Sir Herbert Hambling. He admits that the trading conditions of the last year, thoughout the world, have been the worst that he can remember during the fifty-five years that he has been connected with banking. But he urges people not to lose their sense of proportion, or imagine that the present situation differs in its essentials from others previously experienced. That is the answer to those business men who, under the influences of the moment, persuade themselves into the gloomy view that unprecedented causes are operating in world trade, by reason of which it will not regain its prosperity perhaps for years to come. Those who indulge in such extravagant pessimism should be reminded that slumps like the present have occurred again and again in the past; that they have often been preceded and attended by the same phenomena: production of certain primary food commodities and raw materials beyond the consuming capacity of the world as organised at the moment; falling prices due to this excess; unwillingness of manufacturers to buy on falling markets, the whole being aggravated by diminished consuming power of the prime producers occasioned by their losses. Other factors, such as the gold situation, tariffs, international debts, changing processes in manufacture, may contribute to the dislocation. But the main recurring causes are now familiar to the student of economio history. Some of them, long ago, it appears, did not escape the eagle eye of the young Disraeli. And one inference that may bo drawn from history is that made by Mr Goodenough—that when prices reach rock bottom there will be recovery. The conclusion at which these bankers arrive is, in the main, reassuring so far as the comparatively near future is concerned. But what about the more distant future? If it is the case that years of prosperity and slumps move in cycles, the world must expect to experience another slump ten or a dozen years hence. The answer to that question clearly depends on the people themselves. More knowledge of "the conditions which govern trade cycles is available to-day than ever before. It is well known, for example, as Mr Goodenough recalls, that the world’s population increased only by about 10 per cent, between 1913 and 1928, while in the same period the production of foodstuffs rose by IC, per cent, and of raw materials by -10 per cent. But that relative increase in production is surely not in itself a disadvantage. It only fails to be a positive blessing when •there is failure lo organise the means of absorbing it lo advantage. Organisation and direction of production on an international scale are not easy tasks, but neither are they hopeless. And If investigation shows that tho uneven distribution or holding up of gold has increased the evil, cooperative aetion can avoid it. The world has made unprecedented strides in the last ten years in improv-

ing the whole mechanism of industrial production and transport. Motor traffic, aviation, wireless, telephotography have leaped forward. Is it too much lo require that the world's prime producers, industrialists, distributors and bankers should face In a similar spirit of initiative the urgent task of coordinating production and exchange?