LABOURS FUTURE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 38, 15 February 1919, Page 10

LABOURS FUTURE

POST-WAR PROBLEMS

DISCUSSED BY AN EXPERi'.

Mr. W. A. Appleton, secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions, deals in the following article (taken from the Daily Chronicle and abridged) with the industrial . and commercial situation that will have to be faced after the war :— The war is won. It is our present business to minimise the evil aftereffects of war. This task must be jointly undertaken by the people and the Government. What have we got to face ? An industrial and; commercial situation arrested' and disorganised by war; millions of work-people to transfer from destructive to productive enterprises; permanent casualties that seriously diminish man power and weaken national effectiveness ; a blank space in the technological training of many thousands who during war time and war service have passed from youth to manhood; a keener" competition in markets formerly British, or mainly so; a sickness rate accentuated by inferior foods and by arduous service with the Army and in the workshop. Truly a formidable catalogue, i ..

the war

What havo we got to pay? At the moment we guess our indebtedness and assume that sinking fund and interest j will add five hundred millions per year to our pre-war charges of two hundred millions. Add to this total the immediate cost of war pensions and allowances, and we are faced with the necessity of raising in taxes, either direct or indirect, about four times as much as we raised in pre-war days. > '■■ . And this colossal expenditure includes nothing for the visionist schemes for State housing, for State maintenance of the young up to adolescence, for State endowment of motherhood, for State provision of industrial pensions, or for a hundred other things discussed and resolved at Labour and similar conferences. Has the Government thought of all these things? Does it believe we can liquidate our liabilities? Can we meet the demands of the visionaries ? . The answer- to the first' two questions is in j the affirmative; to the third question, the answer must be—No. During the past two years the Go- ' vernment has through its various technical committees explored theories and planned machinery for dealing with I many sides of the great problem. ! Given a willingness on the part of the people to pull as a team, it ought to I save the industrial and commercial life | of the nation, and enable- its people to ! liquidate national liabilities without i seriously increasing hardship. NEED FOR COMMON SENSE AND HARD, WORK. The first essential to success is public confidence, the second is common sense," and tho third, and greatest, is hard work. In view of'the magnificent achievements of the Prime Minister and those associated with him, confidence can hardly be withheld. Those who know the real people have abundant faith in their.cominou sense and their recognition of the necessity for hard and intelligent work; most of them are alive to the fact that they must either increase their production and sales, or decrease theb standards of living. _The first business of the Government should be to amplify this knowledge, and m plain, simple language to explain the difference between fixed and fluid capital; to show that present payments both for wages and materials are made from moneys borrowed at high rates of interest; that further borrowings tend to diminish national credit and increase the price of all the food and other necessities which Britain must purchase from foreign "countries. I emphasise the need for this kind of propaganda because of an unfortunate and rather widely held belief that notes are. actual value and' that the Government can pay all things by printing Treasury notes. These conclusions are silly ; but not more so' than many conceptions of the soi-disant intellectual,, or their airy and pathetic faith in the State's capacity to finance reform by conscripting capital. Returns should be secured at once from munition workers showing their occupations prior to the war. This would facilitate an immediate transference to basic industries. So far as women are concerned, all who have private means should be dealt with first. Unemployment for these may mean loss of some luxuries, but it offers no real terrors. These should be followed by the married women whose husbands are at home and in employmentCarrying out these measures would not solve the whole problem, but it offers a practical means of commencing the great task that lies before us, of testing any machinery the Government has created, and it clews the way for the gradual reassooiation, of the soldier with industry and comtnerce.

TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES.

In the minds of most men the demobilisation of the Army has . seemed the greater problem. I doubt whether this is so. Transport difficulties alone are sufficient to steady the streams of repatriated men, but beyond this, the Army has acquired a sense of discipline and reality which cannot be claimed for all the civilian population; It wjjl resent injustices, but it will expect to move in ordered sequence- Many; who have demanded return by industries and by pivotal men have not realised how hardly their demands may press upon long service men. These ought to be compensated by■ substantial grants in the shape of deferred pay. Most people appreciate the neecj for increased production, but few have discussed the need for bigger markets. If all the national effort and ingenuity is expended upon production, the ultimate result will be very unsatisfactory. Britishers cannot live solely by selling goods to each other j they must find customers in far-away markets. Their success in this direction will depend upon the readiness with which they adventure abroad, the skill with which they meet the requirements of possible purchasers, and the price and quality of the article they desire to sell.

Transport Will play a considerable part in the resuscitation of international trade. The Government can help by a speedy re-allocation of shipping to routes now neglected, by avoiding all vexatious restrictions upon the transit of goods, and by establishing an effective commercial consular service. Great federations of employers t might also, from their combined resources, send out pioneers of commerce charged not so much with selling goods as with discovering opportunities.

Every useless department of State must pass out of existence. The necessities of the future will not afford a continuance of the duplication which exists. Directors and Ministers and staffs must go if their functions cease or become transferable. The fewer non-produoers, the lighter the task of the producer. When it has done all these things the Government will still have to faoe the situation deliberately planned by those who, in madness, or for selfish reasons, would involve this country in disasters similar- to those which have reduced Russia to barbarism and despair They work in certain well-defined centres ■ and they are' reckless of consequences.

While these men only talk, 'little can bo done in a country which claims free speech, but the moment they, act, stern measures should be taken..