FREE ENTERPRISE IN A NEW ORDER

Southland Times, Issue 25763, 29 August 1945, Page 8

FREE ENTERPRISE IN A NEW ORDER

Sir, —Private enterprise means capitalism, the decadent form, of which is Fascism, the cause of this latest and greatest of wars. Have people had enough of wars and capitalism? The British people have given their answer in the recent elections. If capitalism did not bring about the slump, could “Private Enterprise” tell us what did. Why should socialism “stifle gifts of originality and organization?” . Did Lord Rutherford work for private enterprise? Is the Post Office or the railways so badly organized that to ensure safe delivery of letters or goods, the sender must go forth and deliver in person? If, under war conditions, State control of vital industries —the railways, the coal mines, and armaments—can do a better job than private enterprise, (and this . has been proved time and again in this and the last wars), no one with an atom of common sense would deny the States ability to do it in peacetime. The Government of Britain spent through private enterprise £3O-£4O million annually between the two great wars, ana yet the excuse for the disgraceful and disastrous Munich agreement was that we were unprepared. How much more prepared were we on the outbreak of war?—2oo tanks of five and a-half tons, mounting two machine-guns. Private enterprise, in a burst of armament energy, turned out 1000 planes in a year. This same number was produced by the State in two weeks during the war. Y.Z.