PROSPERITY COMING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 406, 15 December 1932, Page 2

PROSPERITY COMING

BRITAIN LEADS WAY american steel magnate prophesise better times. VALUE OF ELECTRICITY. London, Saturday. Mr. Charles M. Schwab, the millionaire American steel magnate, friend of Kitchener, Fisher, , Lloyd George and Win-ston Churchill, and oue of England's raost valuable allies during the war, is back in London (after an absence of five years. Mr. Schwab is 70 years old, and tbis xnakes hisi eighty-fourth trip across the Atlantic. He comes with a message of hope and comfort for the business man, the industrialist and the manufacturer. "Things iare on the move both in Great Britain and the United States of America," is his considered opin- - ion. "America has seen the bottom of the sluinp and Great Britain is making more progress than any other country in the world." Now Mr. Schwab does not talk for talking's sake. He is the head of the great Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and has built up> interests worth £165,000,000. He has his; finger on the business pulse of both sides of the Atlantic, and knows which way the wind is blowing. Mr. Schwab passed on his optimism to a press representative. "In all my 52 years in business I have never seen anything like the recent depression," he said. "My own concern, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the second largest in the world, has lost money for the first tima in its existence. There is not any kind of business that has not been h'it, and many of them very badly hit. "End in Sight." "But the people who should know best in America all agree that the end is in sight. "We shall soon be round the corner and on the road to better times. If the bottom has not already been knocked out of the slump it very soon will be. "I could give you a nunxber of reasons for this viewpoint. But here are two of the safest. "There is a steady increase in the consumption of electridal power. That means industrial improvement. And railway car loadings have been going up every month for some time. That's another sure sign. "In three weeks, when the elections are over, there will be a big improvement in America, and Great Britain is bound to feel the reaction. A^ wave of prosperity in Ameriea is bound to reach this country. And of all countries Great Britain is winning in the race for trade recovery. "That is what business and financial men in America are saying, and I believe it." Mr. Schv/ab prides himself on the i fact that he forecast the Ottawa i agreements as long ago as 1928. Good Empirie Business. 1 "Yes, I foretold years ago that there would be wider preferences within the Empire. To me it was inI ovitable. Besides being good busi- : ness, it is only natural that all those great nations should trade together

to the advantage of each' single one. "The Ottawa agreements are going to hit America — they are going to hit my own concerns, especially in the Canadian markets. But we must take the wider view. If fhe British Empire prospers under these agree- : ments, America and all the rest of the world must prosper in" the long run." ; Mr. Schwab is to be presentad tomorrow with the Melchett Medal for ; 1932 for his services in developing the world's iron and steel industry. j In 1928 he received the Bess.emer gold medal of the British Iron and Steel Institute.