TARIFF OR FREE TRADE

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1930, Page 7

TARIFF OR FREE TRADE

TRADE UNION CONGRESS

PRESIDENT ADVOCATES AN OPEN MIND.

RUGBY, Sept. 1

“I do not think that there is the slightest Ijkelihood of the Trade Union Movement every adopting a policy of all-round protection,” said Mr John Beard in his presidential address to the Trade Union Congress at Nottingham, to-day, when explaining the Trade Union attitude to the free trade controversy. “On the other hand,” he continued, “the trade union movement has not tied itself to any rigid doctrine of the .free trade theory. To make a fetish of free trade, and to maintain that at no time and in no circumstances whatever must the principle of 100 per cent free trado be questioned is, in our view, as foolish and impossible as it would be to declare that tariffs are the cure for all our industrial ills. We see nothing new or strange in the refusal to tie ourselves down to the extreme form of free trade dogma, but that does not mean that we have declared in favour of a tariff policy.

METHODS OF REGULATION. “The opposite of free trade is not tariffs. The opposite of free trade i» regulated trade, and there are many ways of regulating trade, and, therefore, many methods of establishing economic links with other nations besides the methods of tariffs. In considering such links, we shall listen to any case that may be put up for tariffs, ju.st as much as for any other method. Therefore, to tie ourselves in advance only to discuss matters on free trade lines is a direct denial of our own right to intenfere with economic conditions. Trade unions cannot and will not do that. Let us examine the case for and against every suggested, proposal. Let us judge each case on its merits. Expediency in the broadest sense of that term must be om guide, and not some abstract principle which may have no relation to the actual facts and' problems with which we are faced.”

LOOSE TALK DEPRECATED. Mr Beard deprecated loose talk about “Socialism in our time.” He said that there was no kind of organisation in society capable of effecting the change-over from capitalist production without a tremendous dislocation of the social and economic life of the nation. He compared the task of the Labour Government with that for rebuilding a road without stopping the traffic, and he appealed for the loyal support of the party for the Government and its head, Ml' Ramsay MacDonald.

MILLIONS REPRESENTED!. Six hundred and six delegates, representing 3,744,000 trade unionists, are present at the Congress, which is the sixty-second, compared with sev-enty-seven delegates, representing 250,000 unionists, who met in 1872. The Communist leaders, who have been ex-communicated by Congress, are organising hunger marches to Congress by way of enforcing their grievances. Mr A. Bavin, M.P., will move recommendations to the Economic Committee on Thursday favouring the British Commonwealth becoming an economic unit, which foreshadows the possibility of Empire preference. The Miners’ Federation announce that they will oppose the recommendations. Another keenly debated matter is the proposed scheme of child endowment from birth to the end of the child’s schooling.

THE TEXTILE DISPUTE. In addition to the president’s address, there was a general debates on Trade Union affairs. The resolution of the locomotive engineers, complaining that the General Council had failed to support the woollen workers during the recent lock-out was warmly debated. It was stated that the textile workers had fought with one hand behind the back, owing to the Labour Government appointing the MacMillan inquiry, which had reported in favour of wage reduction. Mr Arthur Pugh defended the General Council.