RECONSTRUCTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 91, 27 January 1934, Page 3

RECONSTRUCTION

PLEA FOR NATIONAL POLICY. AN INTELLIGENT BUILDING. In his book “Reconstruction,” recently issued, Air Harold Macmillan, a British ALP., elaborates and develops the proposals already associated with his name in the last session of parliament. He presents a picture of the next stage, as lie sees it, in the construction of the new economic find social order. His yiews are not purely theoretical. They arise out of his business experiences as Managing Director of Alaemillan and Co., Ltd., Director of the Monotype Corporation, Ltd., and the Great Western Railway, etc. ' The following quotations convey an impression of the scope of tin’s book and the subjects with which it deals:— ' The Problem. “Competition has been, intensified with every step forward in the velocity of production. Prices break under the strain of the, fierce necessity to keep the machines -running and unload their output on the market. Costs of production are cut to a minimum. “The more backward nations with a lower standard of life undercut the more highly developed. The maqhines which enabled a man to conquer scarcity now threaten to plunge him deeper and deeper into poverty. “These facts constitute the background of our difficulties. ' “We must face the fact that we do not live in an economic society of orderly conception and altruistic principles. Wo must realise the essential contradictions of laissez-faire even while we may appreciate the energy and drive of a rugged individualism.

“The policy we are seeking will only be satisfactory if it goes deep enough to correct the, maladjustments and reconcile the disharmonies from which our problems arise. But, of revolutionary violence is to lie avoided, it must also make its appeal to a sufficiently broad strip of public opinion to secure the support of its adoption. It must be at once radical and popular.

The Danger. “If we believe, as we must believe, that a worsening employment situation, and an intensification of depression’ will lead to a growth of poverty and discontent and a weakening of the power of Government to relieve distress, then the alternative to hold reconstruction under quasi-monopoly powers may be a deterioration, in political conditions which will plunge us into violent conflict with the risk of social disintegration. “The choice is no longer as between industrial laissez-faire and monopoly ; but 'between trustification and socialisation, or, it may be, between orderly capitalism and economic and social disorder. “The world is equipped to produce more than the world markets will absorb. This statement is a sell-evident truth, it is an economically ridiculous and politically dangerous state of affairs. It is ridiculous because millions of people are enduring poverty and hardship as an apparent consequence of potential plenty. It is dangerous because an intelligent populace"’will not sillier permanently under so dangerous a paradox. The danger is not that they will destroy merely the system which creates poverty amidst plenty, but that they may bo driven in desperation to destroy much that is valuable as well. Until wo take action to deal with the economic evil the political danger will exist. We are to-dav preparing the ground lor violence. Wo are feeding fanatical revolutionary movements with the material they require. By refusing to speed up the process of social evolution we are making revolution possible and perhaps inevitable.

The Cure. ‘‘The principle of quantitative regulation has already been accepted with regard to certain items of our import trade It is made effective by import quotas for certain lood-stuffs. The principle was accepted in order that we might protect our home market from the dislocating consequences of mere cheapness. Tne same process o reasoning is here, being applied to home production whether for home consumption or for export. Quantitative regulation is essential to economic prices and market stability. “If this principle is accepted ni regard to our import trade, then it must be recognised that the argument is equally powerful when applied to our home production. The over-sup-ply of any commodity produces tne same market effects whether it comes from Birmingham or Yimbuctoo. Quantitative regulation is tne secret oi : price stability, method o achieving it over the whole range or commodities is through the integration of industry and the intelligent direction of production by a central auteoiitv for each industry guaranteed against redundancy, duplication and disorderly competition by the gran of monopoly powers in return oi acceptance of certain social responsibilities.”