MUSSOLINI PREDICTS TRADE RECOVERY

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1930, Page 2

MUSSOLINI PREDICTS TRADE RECOVERY

By BENITO' MUSSOLINI PRIME MINISTER OF ITALY. We have completed an entire year of general Avorld-Avide depression. a dark day Avas that of October 24, 1929, which made the cycle of trade stagnation complete, for it Avas on that day, after vain attempts to put off the impending disaster, that American industry found itself face to face Avith the crisis. From that day until n<nv the momentum doAvmvanl has been so marked that both industry and finance have seemed ; helpless before the world-Avide stub- I bernness of its power”despite herculean ! efforts to stem the trend, and despite several brave stands made by GoA’ernments and institutions in endeavouring to check the descent. That conditions have groAvn Avorse steadily until hoav is attested by the fact that avc recently have Avitnessed almost Aveeklv decreases in values of public properties and financial institutions in all countries of the Avorld. UPWARD TREND. A Avhole year, hoAvevef, seems to have been sufficient for the doAvhAvard trend to spend its course, and Ave can expect a firm stand from now on. Thi-es, though it. may be a period of marking time, nevertheless Avill be a curb for the downward movement and the signal for the turn upAvard and the rehabilitation of normal conditions' of world trade. The uphill struggle Avill be arduous and painful, and, like aR uphill struggles, it will take longer than the descent. In an address Avhich I delivered before our National Council, “Corporazioni,” Avhich is the governing body of our national producing forces, I stated it Avould take another three years before \vorld trade Ava‘ restored to a normal healthy floAv. The crisis is a particularly industrial crisis in Avhich no amount of governmental assistance has been able tso far to effect the necessary remedy. ADJUSTMENT. j ,‘i Progress in industry has been too rapid to make the'adjustment be Lav ecu potential production and markets. .The present crisis,' however, has caused industrialists and statesmen to oonsidei just hoAV Ave came into this world difficulty and how we are going to get out of it. But it is-only one of many diffij culties Avhich the machine, from the period of its first general use more thar a century and a half ago, has broughi as it became rapidly more poAverful am more productive. We must just adjust our poAA’erfu producing machines so that they will keep in step Avith our needs or av< must increase our needs to keep stej Avith the machine, Certainly, some instrumentality should be set up to gtoe an index of the need and to prevent blind over-p: duetion. and so forestall the risk of precipitating Avorld trade into utte: confusion. The present crisis is the first under the regime of excessive mass production, and we should lean to profit from the ill-effects of no; closely controlling markets and production. Just as Ave have successfully solvec many of the agricultural and financia questions Avhich once brought pani > and disaster, so Ave can face the pro blem of ‘ industrial crisis and -solv> it.—NeAv York American.