SOCIAL DISCUSSION GROUP

Evening Star, Issue 21091, 2 May 1932, Page 9

SOCIAL DISCUSSION GROUP

ADDRESS BY MR LLOYD ROSS The Social Discussion Group met in the Y.W.C.A. Hall yesterday. Mr Cope occupied the chair ,and gave a brief outline of the forming of the group. He introduced the speaker- for the initial lecture, Mr Lloyd Koss, who dealt with the individual under economic planning. He stated that the economists who believed that prices must fall and that the operations of the system must work themselves out in blind chaos, engendered another set of individuals who believe in a planned economy. Waned economy would result in control of the individual, if they had unemployment they could have freedom of the individual. If they have planning they had curtailment of liberty. If they are to eliminate uncertainty they must restrict the activities of the individual. His choice must be restricted; to conform to the planned production of goods, also the right of the individual to amass wealth. He quoted Professor Gregory on the position under economic planning. He stated that the danger came not from the nationalisation of industry, but from the interference in the choice of commodities to be consumed and the amount they shall consume. He questioned that the right of the individual was more sacred than security under economic planning. Mr Ross said that when people asserted that planning would restrict liberty, it was ai very narrow view of liberty. It was only the right of the individual to amass money. He went on to state that the individual under the present depression was lost. He wanted something to lean on. In Germany rationalisation was dwarfing the individual, and the chaotic conditions were causing a return to religion. Hope having departed, men were turning to something outside themselves for consolation. In America the ideas were developing, being the expression of the wish for security. In Russia the restrictions on the individual are giving him the feeling of doing something collectively of great value, and the enrichment of the individual mentally was a great advance on pre-planning. He read extracts from ‘ Red Bread,’ by Maurice Hindus, showing the development of a higher outlook on life than obtained under the capitalist system. On one hand planning stilled individualism ; on the other it gave the individual a greater conception of his duty to his fellows. Under planned economy the right of the individual would be restricted to the choice of requirements, feut hg .would, be fees spiritually*