The Iron and Steel Trades
Confederation

STATEMENT BY THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF
THE CONFEDERATION WITH REGARD TO THE
SITUATION IN THE IRON AND STEEL INDUS-TRY
 TO BE PRESENTED AT A SERIES OF
AREA CONFERENCES OF LOCAL BRANCH
OFFICERS TO BE HELD AT GLASGOW, NEW-CASTLE-ON-TYNE,
 SHEFFIELD, CREWE, AND CAR-DIFF
 ON SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1931.

The Conferences of official representatives of branches
of the organisation which are being held to-day at important
 industrial centres throughout the country have
been called to consider the situation in the iron and steel
industry. That is a matter which has been ever present
with the workpeople over the past ten years. They have
had the painful experience of continually decreasing wages
and an ever-increasing volume of unemployment and underemployment.
 The ‘economic blizzard,” as it is termed,
that since 1929 has swept over the countries of the world
which are embraced within Western civilisation has gravely
accentuated the position, and now even those branches of
the industry which have managed to maintain a fair degree
 of trade and employment are involved in a depression
which jn its magnitude and extent is unprecedented in
modern history. That condition will pass, but in passing
it will still leave unsolved the problem arising from the
fact that the British iron and steel industry is faced with
a crisis in its affairs which, unless it can be tackled with
the necessary resolution, vision and capacity by those
who are in a position to control its destiny, the industry
will fail to make that contribution to the economic progress
 of this country and the welfare of the people it >is
capable of doing. Such a failure, unnecessary as it is,
would be a discredit to British industrial leadership and
political statesmanship.
It is necessary to assert this dual responsibility, because,
as we shall show, the problem is not one which, in the circumstances
 in which the industry is placed, can be solved
by industrial action alone, and for the reason that some
of the main causes for the present situation are outside
its control.

There is, however, no justification for the attitude of
defeatism which—judging from the statements made by
many of those who, through company meetings and
throuch the Press and other channels, express the mind

(5°