SELLING CARS ON THE DOLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 17 January 1931, Page 3

SELLING CARS ON THE DOLE

SIR W. MORRIS’S STATEMENT LONDON, 27th November. “With the right leaders in polities there would he a, boom in six months. - ’ This assertion was made by Sir William Morris at a. meeting of Sutton Coldfield. “I was asked the other day,” he said, “where all the money was coming from to buy my ears. I replied; We arc selling ears on the dole to-day. The people who are buying cars are drawing their money from the people who are drawing the dole. We cannot continue long under present conditions. The country must go hack and hack, and I can only hope that at tlie next election more people will realise the position. “I get ruffled,” he said, “when I meet free traders, just as I did when I heard the Chancellor of tlie Exchequer say that British manufacturers lacked enterprise. 1 felt annoyed because in particular we have not had a dog’s chance since the war. When he says that I ask him: What has he done to give the slightest encouragement to the British manufacturer?

.American- competition“He says that W. R. Morris may he a very good business man, but what does lie know about politics? He went, further than that; he almost said that I was a fool in that direction. I must agree with him; hut there is another side to the question. I will ask him what does he know of either business or politics?• and I will ask the present Cabinet, with exceptions, what they have done to encourage business or enterprise in this country? “Mr Snowden says that it is not the horse-power tax which has interfered with the motor industry in getting business taken by a country which might have been earlier in the fight, hut our troubles have been increased by the fact that governments in the past have not realised what is needed for this country. A year ago I calculated that every foreign motor car on the streets in this country meant one man out of work for 12 months. How long will this country go on tolerating this state of affairs, while America is building up the biggest motor ear business in the world behind the biggest tariff in the world?