The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1919. Nationalisation.

Press, Issue 16678, 12 November 1919, Page 8

The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1919. Nationalisation.

One by one the Opposition candidates are professing their adhesion to the large plan of nationalisation which is the most striking and distinctive feature of the policy announced by Sir Joseph Ward. We may therefore take it that they are not indisposed to, make this the main policy issue for the election. If for no other reason, then for this one the community should make up its mind to prevent the . Liberal Party from coming back to office, for •nothing is more certain than that the adoption of its plan of nationalisation would inflict enormous injury on the country. The menace of the "nationalisation" cry is none the less real because those who are sounding it have never attempted to give a single reason why they should be supported or "to refute any one of tho weighty mass of good reasons for believing that their plan is a disastrous one. We have over and over shown, for example, that it is entirely certain that the nationalisation of the coal* mines will lead directly to a greater scarcity and dearness of coal and so to the iniliction of enormous injury on the whole country. But tho Liberal and Labour candidates continue to say that they lave "come to the conclusion" that tho State should take over the industry without giving even a hint of tho reasoning that leads them to such a conclusion. Tho truth of the matter is that they have given no thought to the question at all; they think nationalisation a popular idea, and that is

sufficicnt for them. Perhaps as tho election campaign proceeds theso candidates and their loader will be asked to give reasons for advocating a policy which all experience has shown to be a bad one. In tho meantime we may call attention to tho conclusions arrived at by perhaps the most distinguished economist of tlio age after half a century of close study of economic and industrial problems. This is the famous scholar and writer, Professor Alfred Marshall, who has just published an important volume, "Industry and Trade." Sinco Professor Marshall is a thinker and observer, it is unnecessary to sav that he is proI

foundlv convinced of the unwisdom of nationalisation schemes, which amount .at the best to the Substitution of bad management for strong and enlightened leadership. Some of the advocates of nationalisation in this country have urged that the State ownership of the railways and post office justifies the State ownership of the mines. Some State concerns have been successful, but this is not a decisive fact. For, as Professor Marshall says: "The industries in winch GovernmentDepartments and Local Authorities have succeeded arc Jew in number, but important, iney ale main.y concerned with 'things that .sell themselves'; that is, with tilings which are in large demand and more or loss standardised by natural causes. The chief of them arc connected with facilities for transport, and the distribution of water, light, and power; they all meet elementary needs; call for little or no adaptation to changing habits, or varying tastes; and make use of plant, tho central ideas of which have been worked out by private enterprise r*nd gradually become common property.

"State management possesses advantages 'where many routine operations aro performed under tho public eye, or for tho service of individuals, who will immediately detect and expose any failure or laxity'; especially if 'there is but little capital expenditure, eo that each year's revenue and expense shall represent with sufficient accuracy the real commercial conditions of the department.' These conditions, indicated long ago by Jevons, aro fulfilled in an- eminent degree by the postal business; and first, though not the second, is fulfilled by all other important businesses in which State management has had much success."