The Times TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1937. Coaxing Industry

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 21, 26 January 1937, Page 6

The Times TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1937. Coaxing Industry

The prosperity which is now enjoyed by London and the populous area around it has become a cause of deep uneasiness among Englishmen. When London shared with all Rritain, ana indeed with most of the world, the distresses arising from the great slump the difference between her lot and that of other regions still more unfortunate was not conspicuous. But now that a period of comparative prosperity has returned to Britain, considered as a whole, it is seen that the London area has far more than its share. Unemployment is less there than anywhere else. New industries are drawn to its vicinity as by a magnet. Migrants arrive from other parts of the country. New houses, new factories, new streets spring up on all sides near the bulgingsuburbs. The uneasiness arises from the marked contrast between this increasing activity and the stagnation which still afflicts certain scheduled areas of the country where old industries have been killed. The appeals made on behalf of those areas during recent times have made the thinking part of the nation conscious of two facts: that new industries must be established in the stricken areas; that the industrial problem of any modern nation must be considered as a whole. New industries are pouring into the London region when work is ceasing in Jarrow or the Rhondda valley; while factories cannot be built too quickly in the one, factories are being emptied in the other. The wastage of human happiness involved in such avoidable disarrangement has shocked the national conscience. What is needed in the modern struggle against unemployment and unhappiness is much more piecemeal palliatives. The interdependence of activities in to-day’s highly organised civilisation demands a long-range strategy. Industrialists, left to themselves, planning new enterprises, will naturally shun the stricken areas which need them most; they will flock to the warm, attractive environment of the already flourishing region. So they cannot be left altogether to themselves. It is generally not desirable to use compulsion; but there are other means of moving about the pieces on their social chessboard. There are ways to encourage new industry in Jarrow without unwisely discouraging it in London. The complex modern state cannot dispense with balance, but it is possible to work toward this balance and still preserve the essentials of progress—initiative, individualism, and honest competition.