Powers to Reorganize Industry One of the most interesting of
all the debates of the Conservative Party Conference was that initiated by Mr. Ker Lindsay on the subject of industrial reorganiza- tion. Mr. Lindsay frankly admitted that protection by itself is not enough ; it can only be justified when the protected industry has the power and the oppor- tunity to put its own house in order. The resolution proposed legislation to give statutory sanction to schemes of reorganization favoured by a substantial majority of an industry (subject to safeguards for workers and consumers). Its object, of course, is to empower enlightened industrialists who are anxious to co-operate with others in agreements for production, selling and marketing, to overcome the obstruction of a small and unprogressive minority. The iron and steel trade is an obvious case in point ; coal is another ; cotton is a third. The complaisant and unpromising speech of Mr. Colville, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Overseas Trade Department, did not prevent the Conference from passing this admirable resolution.
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