INDUSTRIAL CONSCRIPTION

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 18, 20 July 1918, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL CONSCRIPTION

TO TBE EDITOR. I Sir, —The Acting-Prime Minister wishes | to dispel the fears of Labour concerning the Government's designs in industrial conscription. He ought to remember that the actions of the Government during the past four years have not given Labour (or anyone else) confidence in the word of the Government. If the Government wishes to convince the people that it means business in , national reorganisation, let it deal with ■ four of the great sources of waste at the ; present time: (a) Banking, (b) insi'rance, (c) shipping, (d) distribution of goods in urban areas. Banking and insurance rest wholly on public credit. Under present conditions, in order that private people may reap the profits, the Government and the com- ■ munity tolerate the most wasteful methods of competition for business and of employment of labour and capital. i Even the farming community has awakened to the fact that the shipping ! ring is not an unmixed blessing, and any- j one, who does not deliberately shut his ; eyes to the fact, must see the stupid j waste in the urban distribution of goods. ' If the Government wishes to reassure the Labour organisations—and the public —its members must give up making political speeches, and must deal with the , above manifest causes of social waste.— I I am, etc., T. A. HUNTER. 18th July.