ROOSEVELT PLAN

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1934, Page 12

ROOSEVELT PLAN

SUITABLE FOR AMERICA

PROFESSOR COPLAND'S VIEWS

Professor D. B. Copland, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce of Melbourne University, who has been about twelve months away from Australia studying financial and economic affairs in Britain, America, and other countries, paid particular attention j to the -working of the Roosevelt plan in the I United States. He also lectured at several universities, where he found great interest being taken in the progress made by .Australia towards recovery, from the depression, which some economists regarded as the outcome of the first comprehensive- and- ordered attack made by any country/ He expressed great appreciation pJL;,President-Roosevelt and the'efforts being made to grapple with the gigantic problems facing the United States. '"It'■will be" a grave mistake," he said in an.interview with the "Sydney Morning Herald," "to assume that the criticisms . indicate ajdecline in popularity and public esteem. oE the President. He has got the nation -with him to a greater extent than any President in recent years. America1 is a land of enthusiasms. These things are part and.parcl of American life. General Johnson has the energy of two men. He is tireless. _ He has a simple faith in the codes and is doing, according to his lights, a great "public service. The seeds they have sown -will not be destroyed. You can't have, in these big industrial cities and in big industries like those of the United States, what I call competitive individualism. It is inconsistent with ordered life and the maintenance of decent standards in big industrial populations. CODES AND WORKING HOURS. "On the problem of the codes and the relations of -working hours to labour and working conditions, Mr. Roosevelt had to take immediate action-to eliminate disastrous competition and low standards, and at the same time to lay the foundations for orderly regulation. Owing 'to the deflation of 1931 and 1932, working standards in some industries" had reached a deplorably low level. Sweating ,was in operation, and, the; evils of-child labour in the south-had; increased. The industrial codes wefevin ■ the first place' an attempt to deal-with those .problems. , ••-'. >. "Owingl, tbJ a'rgeneral acceptance of the doctrine'rof consumers' spending, power, great enthusiasni\was whipped up-in-sup-port. oflthe; codes.\ It ; was felt that higher wages and .shorter hours'.would increase the volume,of employment^There is' much less support for that, view in -Airierica- to-, day. Some rise-in wages-from a very low, depression 'was inevitable', ■but the major.effort is^honr towards increasing the volume of investment, and thus -increasing ; th> demand for labour' at rates . that are. still below the-1929 standard." ' BEHIND AUSTRALIA. Professor Copland pointed but' that it would be a-mistake to- assume-that the wage policy of the -United' States was applicable to Australia. Over a long-period objective in settling" indus.triaL relations; the United States.had reached a stage that Australia reached- : 30 years ago. Public control of'wages, hours, and working conditions, and regulation- of- trades' unions were only beginning in America. Experimentation was to be expected for a good many years. While 'Australians'-; were familiar with it, it;.mvblved -a■revolution m thought and practice; in America:; Such a revolutionary change, cpuld.not.be made overnight. The tradition of individualism was still strong, even among the workmen. In some cases employers the codes because they provide an opportunity for escaping from the anti-trust laws and Making price agreements^- ■; .; ■ in the interview to the tenaeney of countries to Eelfrsuffieiency in focdstuffs"as'one of; the factors affecting Australia, Professor. Copland said: "The tendency to self-sufficiency is. in some respects,- a resumption pf.ari economic policy that was predominant .until -international trade was bnilt up in the 19th century on the basis of expanding transport; the opening up of new countries,, and. increasing streams of migration.![.!! This. certainly means a maximum of. production at a minimum cost. -For-' the-time being, we have seen the end of this era of international trade, and the forces of economic nationalism. • are- once;'" again in - ' the ascendancy. « ; "They have, been strengthened by the depression, and 'in partienlar by the desire ■of countries to remain on the gold standard at : the point' [where their currencies were over-valued! . INTERNATIONAL TRADE POSITION. "A universal depreciation of currencies would' 'mitigate the evils of .economic nationalism,, but there are no grounds for assuming that'the old volume :of international trade can be restored in- the near future. . '':■•'.' ' ' "The world has outdone Australia in itq desire to establish domestic' industries behind tariffs and, other barriers to imports. ..'-.., -. "So far as Australia pursued deflation," Professor Copland concluded, "it was an orderly, comprehensive reduction of costs. Interest and rent came down along -with wages. The depreciation of the Australian pound sheltered-Australia against a disastrous'deflation of; the gold standard countries, including America to 1933. The central banking policy in Australia has been very appropriate to depression conditions. Then there was Treasury bill finance, and the central bank credit has been; expanded by nearly 50 per cent.-, and an. era of cheap money has been inaugurated." ■ ■ .-• MacNamara, Ltd., Sydney's oldest milk distributing concern, handling 30,000 gallons of milk weekly, has been purchased by the Dairy Farmers' Co-operative Jlilk Co., Ltd., for £65,000 cash. "There are undoubtedly signs that the period of economic uncertainty and depression has been overcome, and while ifrds not to be expected that a trade boom ia on the eve of fulfilment, there is no ■room for doubt that industry in the United Kingdom can face 1934 with justifiable hope and expectation."—Department of Overseas Trade report. ~