SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE RT. HON. R. G.
MENZIES AT THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURES
INC. DINNER, SATURDAY, 17TH OCTOBER, 1959
Sir, Mr. Premier and Gentlemen:
I don't know that I liked that last passage very much
about a " fatherly talk". Looking around at some of you I
should think you could give me years! ( laughter) But I am
delighted to be here because as the President has rightly said,
in my opinion, this is just about as big a dinner of its kind
that I have ever seen in Australia in my life, No doubt the
expansion of the business of General IMotors-Holdens, under the
benign auspices of my Government ( laughter) may have something
to do with it. A rather contentious fellow called Horn,
who is one of their directors, has niever been known to admit it
when in Canberra.,..
But it is a marvellous thing to be able to stand up at
what is primarily a manufacturers! dinner in Adelaide in the
State of South Australia, because quite frankly looking back
what? 20 years? I would have thought an attendance like this
under these auspices practically impossible. And therefore this
proves what has been going on in the State of South Australia.
I picked a period of 20 years, not because I had any more desire
than usual to flatter the Premier of this Stat11e but because
I did hope that when he comes, later on, to speak he might say
to you that of the 20 undoubtedly the greatest 12 well,
you know what I mean! ( laughter).
In point of fact, gentlemen, I want to tell you this
so that you will be prepared for anything. Sir Thomas and I
have a little ' working arrangement'. It has endured now for
many years. We take it in turns to have the last word.' When
he has the last word as he will tonight he takes strips off
mej and when I have , he last word as I do every other time
well I do my best, Though it's very hard to ' take a strip'
off this political pachyderm'! ( Lau,-hter) I don't say that
offensively, but because there he is: he has been there for
years, and I like to recall that over these 20 years he has
occasionally thought of the then state of affairs at the opening
of the account so to speak, in the State of South Australia.
I was reminded of it very much today flying across,
contemplating this really disastrous drought that you have been
having in South Australia, A worse drought here than in any
other part of Australia, and if I were to go back for 20 years,
as he can so readily, I think we would both agree, Tom, that
years ago the impact of a dry year with 71 inches of rain, the
impact on South Australia would have been disastrous, and in a
large sense not capable of being resisted because there was no
other balancing factor in the econcrm. y of the State no other
big balancing factor at any rate. So that one would have expected
to find a great deal of unemployment, a good deal of
misery, tremendous problems of Government and private finance.
And in 20 years, if I may say so, largely owing to the unceasing
drive and sometimes the tiresome non-conformity of my friend
the premier ( laughter and applause) but largely owing to
his unceasing drive, with a little co-operation from me in the
earlier years as he will recall .,( la~ ughter) but only a
little, it was... well, I won't elaborate that in case it giv-os
him ideasJ But anyhow ( and he doesn't need them) ( Laughter)
. But you know over this period of 20 years this State has got
both economic feet firmly on the ground. And that uas why I was
so struck tonight, as I was the last time I came hero, at the
idea that you could have 600 men of significance in this city
and in this State meeting to celebrate another year of enormous
development in their own State, and therefore ih the Commonwealth.
This to me is one of the groat things that has happened in
Australia.
I was born in the northwest of Victoria in a section
which was then called the Mallee, until somebody coined that
highly intellectual phrase: " Is the Mallee worth saving?"
whereupon we promptly called our section the VJimmera ( laughter).
4e11, I mean, reasonably enough we had an acute desire to be
savedi But in 1902, when I was a very ripe age indeed 1902
one of my earliest memories is the great drought of that year,
when in that district ( Jeparit, from Horsham up to Dimboola and
Rainbow) 2J inches of rain fell! The whole earth was brown,
and half of it was blown around in the north winds. Starving
cattle and other stock were brought in to Lake Hindmarsh because
out of the dry bed of the laka there began to sprout a rather
succulent weed as you might say which had moisture in it and
which saved a few thousands of them. At that time a drought
was and still is of course for those who are under its direct
impact an utter disaster. It seemed to be so irremediable
that I began very early in my days to understand what water
meant to people who are in the outback country of Australia.
But oddly enough, though that's my first juvenile memory,
my second juvenile memory not so long after , ards was of hearing
my late father, who was subsequently a member of the Victorian
Parliament, and from whom I inherited a certain degree of contentiousness
and of willingness to enter into a dispute you
will forgive me for that I'm sure but I can we: ll remember
him laying down the law to some, I thought, rather tolerant and
patient wheatgrower, on the subject of the vital importance to
Australia of the protective tariff. They were fighting words
in those days, weren't they? Tremendous! And the old man used
to be at this, as it seemed to me, almost day and night, and in
my juvenile innocence I thought he was wrong.
But that really wasn't a very comforting way in which
to speak to men on the land who suffered all the vicissitudes of
wind and weather. But I didn't take long to learn that from an
Australian point of view he was right that for Australia it
i~ as not sufficient to be exposed naked to the forces of wiind and
weather, that we must develop ourselves as an all-round community,
growing things from the soil, grazing stock on the soil,
manufacturing things in our factories, learning to stand robustly
and in an all-round way in the presence of whatever the world
might choose to do to us, And that's quite right! And you are
tonight the proof of it, And the history of this State is the
proof of it. If the distinguished Premier of this State had
taken a small, narrow view of these matters, South Australia
would not today be able to stand up against these difficulties
and move forward and continue in the broad the prosperity of
her growth, and her development. And therefore I don't belong
to the school of thought though I'm afraid some of my manufacturing
friends do who think that secondary industries in
Australia ought to be apologised for, or in some strange way
defended as if they were exotic from the point of view of Australia.
All that's gone. tie are today living in a community
which has long since decided that every aspect of 4ndustry,
whether it's primary or secondary or tertiary, is in alliance
with every other in order to give the greatest stability and the
greatest chances of growth to the country. That's a simple and
rather comprehensive statement of my owm feeling about these
matters. But I wyant to say a little more about today and the
future. It has been very much in my mind in the last few days
it was brought more acutely to my mind when I learned, as you
did, this afternoon, of the death of George Marshall, that very
great American and very great citizen of the world. Now you
may say: " What has George Marshall to do with the Chamber of
Manufactures Dinner in Adelaide?". I'd like to answer that
question if I may, because I knew him a little enough to know
3.
of his greatness, of his outlook. But I want to remind you that
George Marshall will go down in the history of the Twentieth
Century as one of the very greatest men of our time. And for
two reasons one was that it wasn't for him to have the picturesque
tasks even though they were vastly dangerous of
command in war; but it was his task as the head of the general
provisioning for the Services in the United States, to be responsible
basically for an * enormous part of the American effort in
the late War. And he attended to it with the most astonishing
courage and the most r~ akbeintelligence, And then when
the War was over he di1. n't fail to understand that there had
been a Wiar before, and that it had produced American ideas in
the League of Nations of an International kind, and that these
had been dropped and defeated at Washington, and that the United
States of America had for a time gone back into a state of isolationism.
George Marshall was well aware of this. He, of
all men in our time, was the man who led the United States into
understanding that the economic development of other countries
in the world was of the greatest importance for peace and for
an intelligent resistance to Communism. And so we had the
Marshall Plan Marshall Aid even though today he is dead, and
for years he has been out of the picture, we ~ xilfind ourselves,
don't we, talking about Marshall Aid as a sort of generic
term. All these thousands of millions that have been
poured into the rest of the world for economic strengthening by
the United States have not only exhibited the end of isolationism,
but they've exhibited the statesmanship which in my opinion does
groat honour to the greatest power in the Twentbth Century. And
so George Marshall and his memory and his work are not irrelevant
to what I am thinking about and talking about tonight.
I believe that the development in Australia over the
last twenty years in particular over a period which began
perhaps a few years after the end of the first World Vlar the
development of Australia in manufacturing, in all-round political
and economic activity has been a source of strength to us
that we don't always rc alise. I was asking the ether day for
a few figures because figures are occasionally interesting.
Boards of Directors have, I believe, been known occasionally to
pay attention to them ( Laughter) and occasionally I do. But I
asked for a few good round objective figures, because I had it
in my bones that there had been the most astonishing development
in this, what I'll call, the industrial field, Aid t'jlo answer
is that since the War there has been invested in manuf'acturn
industry, in what I'll call the fixed assets of manufacturing
industry, since the war, no less than œ 1,750,000,000 in Australia.
And for years now it has averaged about œ C200,00, OO a
year at least. This is remarkable! If it stood by itself it
would be remarkable. If it stood by itself it would exhibit a
degree of confidence in the country which I think is of the very
essence of national development. But if doesn't Stand by itself!
We have now for some time been receiving capital needed
capital from overseas. Some of it, of course, on the public
account public Government borrowing and a great deal of it
on private account. We have had now, for the last few years,
something over a hundred millions a year coming into Australia
on private account for capital investrment. And contrary to some
public impressions the better part of it from the United Kingdom,
but a gruat deal of it from the United States far more on
private account than on public account, though I wouldn't apologise
for what has come in on public account, because as I think
I have said to you once bofore, there is no greater fallacy entertained
by many people including business people than the
idea that Government expenditure on works is in somae way a competitor
with private expenditure in the development of industry,
whereas, of course, it is nothing of the kind! But for Government
expenditure on roads and water and power and all these
things there could be no adequate industrial development in Aus-
tralia. These are two facets of the same thing; and from my
poftft-of view, as one who has been by some chance made the
Prime Minister of Australia, I find nothing that fills me so
much with pride not with complacency as some people say but
with pride a decent sentiment pride is and every Australian
ought to have it and nothing fills me with more pride than
the knowledge that this confidence is being shown not only by
investors in Australia but by investors outside of Australia,
in our destiny, in our capacity, in our future both near and
distant. These are, I think, tremendously exciting days. And
when I think about them I say to iyself: " dell, how is it that
when we contemplate the state of our economy how is it that
when we follow out the enormous growth of industry in Australiathat
we so frequently sit down and engage in a gloom session.
Oh things are not what they might be! We're having a little
trouble about this! The Government isn't doing enough about
that." Well I don't mind a bit of moaning; I think that it's
very good I'm not unaccustomed to is ( laughter) near home.
A little bit of moaning now and then it relished by the wisest
men if I may misquote ( laughter). But what about taking a
little stock occasionally and forgetting to moan, and feeling
glad? What about feeling happy about this country of ours?
! hat about saying to ourselves every now and then: " Bliss was
it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young ' twas very Heaven."
Wouldn't it be very Heaven to be young in a country like this,
with all these achievements to its credit, and with this almost
illimitable future in front of it? Let's be proud; let's be
cheeful about it! And it's very important that we should be
for a reason that I want to mention a reason with which many
of you are no doubt familiar.
It isn't very long ago that it could be said with
complete accuracy that the export income of Australia was
derived almost entirely from primary products. And the manufacturer
was a fellow who under the advantage of all that, was
enjoying the benefits of a protective tariff. But he wasn't
exporting anything! Now, I've got a figure or two on that
I'll see if I can find it; yes, five years ago only five
years ago manufactured goods and semi-manufactured goods
represented eight per cent of Australia's exports. Last financial
year they represented fourteen per cent of Australia's
export income. Five years, you know that's a very remarkable
development. I believe myself that the time will come I won't
be here, but a lot of you will be: you sprightly fellows will
be here I believe that the time will come, and that before
many years, when the products of our factories will represent
a massive proportion of our export income. I'm not contemplating
that we're going to grow less wool or sell less wool or
that these great staples of export are going to be less significant,
They will go on, providing the bedrock in many ways of
our overseas earnings they will remain most vital industries,
and we are not to forget it but I believe that eight per cent,
fourteen per cent, will becom twenty, will become tw: entyfive,
will become thirty per cent until the old idea that the manufacturer
provides only for his own people under the shelter of
a tariff will become almost as dead as the dodo. And why
shouldn't it! What kind of people are we in Australia? There
are none bettorl Let's have a little bit of Scot's modesty
about this matter ( laughter, applause)
" Here's tao us
Wha's like us?
Da'd few, and they're a' doid."
Well that's good; it's a good Scots motto, and I commend it
' even to my Irish friends ( laughter) who may be here. But this
is really a matter for pride and for ambition. All we need to
do is to realise that if we're going on increasing our population
by a quarter of a million every year, so that by the end
of this century there will be far, far more millions here than
any prophet ever thnought of fifteen years ago if we're going
on like that, then let us realise that we are and must continue
to be one of the greatest trading nations of the world. We are
indeed! We're in a limited few of the great trading nations.
Far greater traders than our population would suggest or require.
And when we have twenty million people, when we have
thirty million people, are we going to be ontent to be exporters
only of the things that we grow? Are we going o look back
and say: " Well we had a marvellous opportunity of doing business
with hundreds of millions of people whose standards of living
were only beginning to emerge, whose capacity to buy was
only beginning to be significant"? Or are we going to say to
ourselves: " Look, it's of much greater importance to know how
we can export things that we make in Australia, how we can
export them in large measure, in fifteen years'time." That's
a much more important question than whether we can raise the
dividend rate next year from nine to ten, or from ten to
twelve. This is a matter for imagination, for understanding,
for a bit of true pioneering. I've said it until I'm well
I was going to say until Il'm sick of saying it until some
people are sick of hearing me say it, much more accurately but
I have said more than once that there's nothing I object to so
much as this old bogus idea that pioneers had beards and bowyangs.
All that's gone! Some day they will look back, and
they will look back to you people and to me and to all of
us who are here and so be it that we do the right thing
they will say: " These people were among the pioneers of Australian
export to the rest of the world of things made in Australian
factories by Australian artisans." And that will be
a great day for Australia. ( applause)
Now, Sir, it's taken me a long time to lead up to it,
but that's really all I got up to say to you. This is our
moment! You never know this may be the year or the decade of
our destiny. I don't go so far as to say it's the year of our
destiny, but I'm sure that we are living in the decade of our
destiny. If we huddle up under our protective clothes, and
say: " Well, we're doing very nicely, why worry aoout the market
in other countries, we're doing quite nicely thank you" then no
doubt we can go along quite comfortably, but our race didn't
become what it was and is in the -Jorld by going comfortably.
Australia might have wanted to go comfortably when she had a
small population and an acute sense of dependence, but what's
the use of taking pride in your independence unless you determine
that all the things that have to be done to maintain it
and extend it, and make it useful, will be done?
And so, I'm saying to you what no Prime Minister
would even have thought of saying at a Chamber of Manufactures
dinner twenty years ago I'm saying to you: don't just be
satisfied by filling the local market; don't just be satisfied
by fooling that circumstances are not too bad and there's a good
level of prosperity. Be dissatisfied, grossly dissatisfiA until
you feel that we are capable of exporting to other people
in the world and selling to them in fair competition, masses of
things that are made in our factories. We do it'I Australia
sells stool on the west coast of the United States at a price
advantage.! Not bad for Australia is it? Somebody would have
said once that it couldn't be done. Somebody once said that it
was impossible to manufacture motor cars in Australia it
couldn't be done! The world's full of these wretched creatures
who know that it can't be done. I am addressing six hundred
men who I hope know that it can be done, and are determined
that it will be done.