THE CHANGING WORLD

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20492, 7 May 1938, Page 8

THE CHANGING WORLD

REGULATION OF TRADE AX ALTERED DICTATORSHIP (By Telegrapn.—Press Association) DUNEDIN, Friday In this changing world in your walk of life you, more than any other profession, are affected by the movements on foot," said the Hon. Downie Stewart, in an address at the opening of the annual conference of the New Zealand Commercial Travellers’ Association to-day. Mr Stewart instanced the steady obstruction to the movement of goods and capital through the desire of all nations to possess a self-contained economy. Everywhere trade and industry were passing under regulation, and the dictatorship of the consumer was being replaced by the dictatorship of the producer. Whether hoard or Government, and wherever that process developed, the consumer ceased to be the regulating factor, while the economic structure became more rigid. This new process assumed that bureaucrats knew better what the consumer wanted than they themselves. The whole foundation of the travellers’ work was being sensitive to new wants, but the State must be dictatorial and reactionary. The present system had its defects, but these could be cured, and it was the only system under which a free market and free individual choice could be assured.