FIGHTING THE TRUSTS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 33, 3 November 1919, Page 5

FIGHTING THE TRUSTS

Mr. M'Curdy, chairman of the Central CoiniiLttee under the I'rotite-'ring Act, Parliamentary Secretary to tile .Ministry of J*'ood, speaking at a conference in the (.ruildhaU, Northampton, recently, •aid .-

The profiteer is one of the minor horrors 0t war. While some of the minor horrors infest the trenches, the profiteer preys on the civilian papulation at home. Parasites and profiteer* Jigure'in the story of the Napoleonic wars, just as in our own day, K-ats followed ihe Urand Army to Kussia and some of Napoleon's laws against profiteers are still on the slatute-hooks of Fiance. In the war which hsw just ended, not one of the belligerent countlries has escaped the plague of profiteers; and the neutral >:oiintrie.i have also suffered. Profiteering is one of the causes of high price*, and although if may not bo tiio most serious cause, it is at any rate the most irritating. The Government means in stamp it out. The Act deals wihli two kinds of ptuliteers- the big and the littfe ones, i'liflt fciio big profiteer who may be found among tile trusts and combines and the wholesale trades—then Llie smaller offenders. Our powers are very .wide. We can deal with any ijnestiou of co.-its and prices, from the price of a reel of cotton to the present co-it of all the materials that are necessary to build a house. When I was chairman of the Committee on Trusts we found that there had been in the last feiv years a great increase of trade organisations formed lo control prices. These are not quite so black as they are sometimes painted; they render sime valuable services lo the pulJ.ie, but they are formed to control pr.ccs in their own interest, ihey are not philanthropists. We ought ki have powers to inqliiro for ourselves into the operations of trusts and combines of that kind, at ally lato to far as they operate in this country. The Prolil.eerinß Act gives the Board of Trade those powers, and the Prime Minister has announced that before the Act expires legislation 'will be introduced to make those powers permanent. The Act also gives the .Hoard of Trade compulsory powr-rs'to lirwi Mil; the actual proiits that are being made on any iirticlc in common ustj.

. l*'or llit* inveoiigiiriou ot' complaints in connection with retail trade tlic President of tlio Jinnrd »f Tradu has asked il)o hcljj of local committees, whose duty wi'.l not bo lo net as criminal courts, ur to inflict iiiipris-oimioiit or lines, or nnylhin-; of that kind, "(jut lo inquire as'a jury of. reasonable nir-n into local grievances, find, if they find a case where unrea."onable prices h:iyo Ix'cn cliar;:i'd~priei s ior which no justification call be made ont —to declare what <i l'e/i----unliable. price ivon!<l lie and to order a refund of the difference. The purpose of the Government is not to multiply pvoseoutious but lo protect, the public! In a case of this kind pivVention is for belter lhaii cure, but do not forgot Hint Hi> Board of Trade-has powers lo refer eases of profiteering to t.he Criminal Tourl.-. and whore a ease of deliberate and wilful prclitcerinp is made out, those powers will certainly be exercised.