LOCAL INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1938, Page 10

LOCAL INDUSTRY

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l take off my hat to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, for I regard him as a super-optimist. He is out to bring about an expansion of local industry, and has perfected plans for the purpose, and all that is needed nqw is patriotism and other nebulous sentiment to translate the plans into perfect success. The Minister has undertaken a super-human task and he will find his super-optimism of no avail. Expanding industry comes within the scope of economics, and not sentiment.

In the issue of the "Evening Post" of Saturday announcing the expansion plan, there is published a report of a company which made a loss of £166, compared with a net profit of £3703 last year and £5079 in 1936. And the shareholders get no dividend, notwithstanding.^as the Minister claims, that during the first three years of the Government's term of office it placed greater spending power in the hands of the people.

The Minister should have a.dded that the rise in wages, the reduction in the hours of work, the increase in taxation, the increase in railway freights, the slower policy adopted in some occupations, and all other handicaps have combined to place a heavy load on industry, and it seems to me Gilbertian comedy to request industry, in the

face of ■ this, to expand and carry fur- ! ther loads of costs. The fact of the matter is that the structure of trades hall finance is topheavy because of the insecurity of the foundations. The sooner this is recognised the better for all concerned, tor it will teach the people and Trades Hall in particular that unorthodox methods of finance cannot be linked with orthodox methods with any j safety. The Government must adopt the advice of the "Daily Herald" (London) and set about reducing costs. Industry must see profit if it is to expand. The" experience of several of our local industries is that profits diminish year by year.—l am, etc., PENLOO.