The speeches made by the great captains of industry and
finance at the annual meetings of their companies are now among the most important of public addresses. The vast amount of . stook now held in small amounts by the general public and the keenness felt in regard to all matters of finance by the new shareholders render it worth while for the chairmen to make their share- holders realize fully the conditions under which they are trading. Mr. McKenna's speech to his bank the other day was remarkable for its statement of sound fiscal principles. As remarkable in another way was the speech made on Monday last by Sir Hallewell Rogers, Chairman of the Birmingham Small Arms Company. The speech, we are glad to say, has been reported in full in the advertising columns of almost all the newspapers and may be found in our issue of to-day. Sir Hallewell Rogers explained to his shareholders exactly why business was at the present moment in so unsatisfactory, nay dangerous, a position. We have often urged in these columns that the unhappy friction between Capital and Labour is due to the fact that the working men have adopted false economic premises. To these false premises they have, applied a ruthless logic, with the result that their views have become utterly distorted, and that they are pressing for economic ruin.
Previous page
