TO TOTAL WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 29 January 1943, Page 2

TO TOTAL WAR

AUSTRALIA'S EFFORT ECONOMIC HONEYMOON OVER (0.C.) SYDNEY, Jan. 11. Australia is working on a plan to bring its war effort on the economic front—in the factory and in the shop, on the farm and through the household budget—to its maximum in the shortest possible time, writes the finance editor of the Melbourne Herald. The programme is the second, and most difficult, stage of the economic war. The guiding principles of the plan are explained in a booklet by Professor D. B. Copland, Commissioner in Control of Prices and Economic Adviser to the Commonwealth Government. These principles are:— 1. The community to live in health and efficiency with a lower output of civilian goods. 2. Orderly transfers of labour from non-essential to essential industry.

3. Control of incomes and prices .so that scarce resources will not obtain additional rewards because of their scarcity. 4. Control of the spending of income so that surplus income will not maintain an effective demand for non-essential goods. 5. Control of the movement of people and goods so that transport will be left for essential needs., 6. Prevention of unnecessary increases in costs. 7. Taking over of the. responsibilities for the risks caused by war conditions, such as the extra depreciation of overworked plants, the holding of stocks of materials at high prices, the losses caused by damage to property, ships and cargoes. 8. To achieve all these changes in the shortest possible time. First Stage Easy Professor Copland's plan is to turn 50 per cent of our total production to war. Britain's effort is more than 50 per cent, Germany and Russia's each 60 per cent -or more.

The first stage of the war was easy; in fact, beneficient. The unemployed were put to work. Numbers normally idle or retired took up work or returned to it. Resources were diverted from expenditure on public works to defence and war work. All that involved no sacrifice in the standard of living. Although it represented a 20 per cent war effort, we could afford an expending civilian production, because we were not yet able to transfer large numbers of men and materials to war production. The community had a higher standard of living than before the war, and, maybe, even a higher standard than ever in its history. That phase, which continued for two years, has aptly been termed the period of "economic honeymoon." The third stage, which has yet to come, Professor Copland says, is the attainment of a balanced economy on a total war footing. All the transfers and reorganisation will be complete. We shall be on a settled basis in which only minor adjustments will be required from time to time.

Some of the steps necessary to reach this stage have been announced by the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin. Chief points in the plans for the intensified manpower drive are:— Compulsory call up of women when proper facilities are available for them in industry. Idle men and women to be called up to assist the war effort in ways best suited to their abilities. Longer hours to be worked in factories, offices and in the civil service if present hours considered too short. Use of extensive powers by the Director-General of Manpower to transfer men and women from one employment to another; and A reduction in .consumption of foodstuffs.

Manpower Requirements It will obtain its manpower requirements from 11 main groups of men:— 1. Normal net increase (mainly under 18 years). 2. Unemployed and unoccupied (mainly old men reclaimed from retirement). 3. Civil factory production (already reduced by two-thirds below pre-war level, ami concentration of production will be necessary in many industries). 4. Mining (by curtailment of gold mining, which is already in hand). 5. Rural industries (by transfer from some industries to essential industries). 6. Building and construction .(by withdrawal from A.R.P. construction work). 7. -Government services, mainly States 8. Transport (by transfers to essential transport, further restricted unessential transport). 9. Retail trade (by an organised scheme for retail distribution). 10. Commerce, finance. 11. Other industries producing services (by radical commercial reorganisation). There will be no gain from unemployed, because registered unemployed are almost wholly workers changing jobs. ■ Four main sources from which women will be obtained are:— 1. Normal net natural increase. 2. Unemployed (many are not dependent on employment and really unoccupied). r 3. Retail trade. 4. Unoccupied. Mr. Curtin said that speeding up of production of equipment and supplies; the carrying out of vital Avorks and maintenance of the fighting forces at requisite strength were the over-riding considerations of the new measures. Australia may play her part as a productive fighting nation in a full measure not hitherto contemplated. To do that her full manpower resources must be directed fully to the war effort.