THE I.L.P. CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 130, 5 June 1925, Page 3

THE I.L.P. CONFERENCE

CONFISCATE OR COMPENSATE BANKS FOR THE PEOPLE. (PROa OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 15th April. The Comrades of the Independent Labour Party expect to be able to begin a Socialist revolution in four years' time, when the Labour Government is returned with a majority. At the conference at Gloucester yesterday it was evident that most of the speakers believed their great opportunity will come when the present Government goes out of oihee by effluxion of time. Yesterday's debate centred round the question whether, in. "nationalising everything," compensation should be paid to the owners, or whether there should be. simple confiscation: "Shall w e buy or shall we take?" Mr. Hugh Dalton, M.P., who was tho selected speaker for the majority of the committee (which had reported in favvour of the payment of compensation on the transfer of private property to public ownership), said Socialists did not expect that in the first few years of their coming into power they would be able to socialise all Industrie's, but that they would have to change them gradually from the basis of private profit to that of public service. • Hence the im,jonty of the committee accepted the | principle of compensation. Two steps t" the transfer to public ownership would be, first, the taking over of control, and secondly, the taking over of ownership.. For th s control no compensation would be paid; for'the ownership, compensation would come out of the taxation of accumulated wealth In othor words, the capitalists would compensate one another. MTh^' e u We-' e cries ,of "Nonsense" whet. Mr. Dalton asserted that there were 4i. million • capitalists in the co-operative movement whom they could not afford to neglect. Otherwise they would be counting out against themselves in advance millions of ' working-class voters. Mr. J.-Maxton,:ir.P., selected as : the spokesman. ,of the. confiscationists, who cad produced no minority report said the question'they should "put was, "Is it unjust to take a razor out of' the hands of a child?" "That is the question we should put with reference to the expropriation of the capitalist class. J-t is not unjust to take out of their tiands the power of doing' wrong. So much for the morals of the question To conciliate a few people does not weaken the opposition to Socialism to any extent, but it does weaken the strength of the people who are fighting for the establishment of Socialism." Mr Maxton went on to say that he still believed rent was robbery and profits were plunders. The practical problem was not the slow transfer of Property. over a period of twenty years. "Capitalism is crocking up before our eyes, and our problem is to create a new social system on the ruins of-the crashed old one." MR. OSWALD MOSLEY'S PLAN. The plan unfolded by Mr. Oswald Mosley {the son-in-law of the late Lord' J-uraou) was for tho socialisation of banking, "carrying, this one measure through Parliament at once on our at.tamment of a majority," and by its means forthwith establishing a minimum wage throughout industry, abolishing the poor law and the dole forthwith, and extending full maintenance to the unemplayed through credits supplied by tb» Socialist banking system. "Extend credit, put more money into the hands of Hit people to buy. and consequently create a demand for 'the manufacture of goods," explained Mr. Mosiey- _ This proposal would; he knew, be received with a shout of dismay from tile capitalists, who would call it inflation, but it. was not inflation if. in addition to-increasing the supply of money, they increased the supply of goods. Under tho present system" inflation would mean an orgy of luxury, spending, and speculation, but Socialists would go straight, to the necessitous areas of pov-. erty. The banks now issued producers' credit to produce for non-exis-tent markets: Let Socialists issue consumers' credits to. the unemployed and thus create a demand for the first necessaries of life. That money would be repaid_ from the excess profits of industry in the "boom" period which they would have created by giving more power of demand to the consumers. The same method would serve for bringing up wages all round to the minimum by credits from the socialised banks, strictly'requiring proper Wages to be the first charge on industry. Both subjects were referred to the branches for consideration.