The people's voice., 1942-02-27
CONTINUED from Page one)

lGom Idkc OhCt
appropriately, as private ownership
exercised over the public control. i
this system showed by the spirit Of
those who are directing it and by
their administration in detail that il
was being used as something which
we are passing through to attain
something new, it might be all very
we'll, but both the spirit of those who
are mainly in control of the system
and the details Of its application show
that we are all the time dragging
back to the old, and that way lies
failure either in prolonged war OF
in peace. Every effort which the gov
ernment makes to create order and
justice out of chaos and inequality
stops just short of the point at which
it would be necessary to say goodbye
to the old order which is breaking
down.
challenge the Ministry of Food
and the Ministry of Supply on this.
They are receiving from their own
people, the men who have to tackle
the actual problems, one report after
another that the particular problem
with which each man has to deal
cannot be solved unless it is taken
completely out of the realm of profit
and loss. Those reports are all being
turned down flat by the heads of
those departments. Why? Today there
| is an acute housing shortage in city
which has thousands of empty houses.
Why? Today there is an acute furni-
ture shortage in a city in which every
warehouse is bursting with unwanted
furniture. Why? Because, while tens
of thousands of Russians are dying in
our cause and any one of us or all Of
us may be called upon to face death
before another session of Parliament
is opened, you will not break with the
sacred principles of private property.
One Eye on War Effort,
Other on Profit
We are to have a debate on pro-
duction. wonder whether in that de-
bate anybody will mention the root
cause of the difficulty. The root cause
does not lie in ministerial incompe-
tence, or in absenteeism, or in man.
agerial inefficiency, or in the over
tapping of departments, or anything
of that kind. 1t lies in the fact that
production of the whole, through the
instrumentality of men who must
have one eye resting on the postwar
capital value of the particular part
which they control. l want to keep a
sense of proportion. l am not for one
ated statements which hold up every
shareholder as being conscious and
deliberate saboteur of the war effort
for his own individual cash benefit |
OF course not. But there is an associ- |
alton of ideas in the minds of those |
who take for granted that the old
system will go on after the war which |
leads to conflict of interest alto
gether too great to be tolerated |
a long war. 1t may not |
matter if there is to be a collapse of |
Germany in II months, but 1t does
matter in long war.
Let honorable members think of
these points. 1t Is in our interest to
postpone every postponable repair; it
Is in the interests of the owners to
get every repair done and have it
charged up to the excess profit tax
It is in our interest to work the good
seams in the coal mines now; it is
n the owners interests to postpone
work on the good seams until after
he war. 1t is in our interest to share ,
interests to preserve them. 1t is in
ur interest to concentrate output in {
very factory on one or few products; !
t is in their interests to keep the I
actory flexible by making as many Z
ifferent products as possible. 1t is
n our interest that skilled men should !
pend part of their time teaching {
heir skill to unskilled men; it is in a
he owners interests that skilled men i
hould be kept on direct production a
IL the time. 1t is in our interest to 6
ave paper by cutting down advertis- L
i6J IL 10 al lhCli iiilCi Colo W SpCuQ
honey which belongs to us-because t
therwise 1t would go in excess profits s
AKIN advertising things like aero S
lane parts. g
Let honorable members look at n
journals such as Flight" d
nd they will find them filled with i
dvertisements of aeroplanes. 1t is a
imply a question of our money being o
sed to build up postwar goodwill. a
. is in our interest that wome d
hould replace men; it is in the in "
srests of the firms to hang on to the a
len because they know that the n
omen will go away after the war. it
is in our interest that half-used Il
should be sent to factories
here they would be fully used; it is
| the firms interests to disguise the IL
lct that the machines are half used. L
is in our interest that skilled q
orkers, when work falls off in one N
Ictory, should be sent to another F
ctory; it is the firms interest to CO
ing on to skilled workers in case gt
1