The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-04
TODAY
and


that the basic problem Of Britain
land of the European countries
Including Germany - is radically
different both from the American
and the Russian. The funda-
mental conditions being different
from those in either of the two
great theological rivals, the
British and the Europeans must
take a different course. =
The controlling difference is, as
the White Paper puts it for
Britain, that I'VE have not
enough resources to do all that
we want to do. We have barely
enough to do all that we must
do, Whether we reckon in man
power, coal, electricity, steel or
national production q S a whole,
the conclusion is unavoidable"
What Britain must do is to ex-
port enough to pay for three
quarters Of the food she must i'm
port, and of h raw materials
she needs for herself and for the
manufactures that S h e must ex-
port. The Canadian and American
credits, and some invisible in
come, will for the next two or
three years make up tn other
quarter.
The question is how much eco
nomic freedom as we under
stand it-c a n a country in this
position afford? 1t is evident at
once that it cannot afford to allow
the people freedom to buy
abroad. It has to control and
ration its imports; otherwise
Britons will buy more than the
nation has American and Canadi-
an money to pay with, and indi-
viduals will buy goods which they
would like to have rather than
those goods which the whole
nation most needs. The people of
Britain cannot afford the freedom
to import.
Only the absolute necessities
can be imported. They will be
scarce, the supply will be less
than the demand. Therefore, the
British cannot afford to allow
themselves The freedom to on
sume-the freedom to buy as
much OF anything as they have
British money to pay with. They
have to ration themselves. There
fore, they cannot allow their pro-
ducers and shop-keepers freedom
to sell at a free market price.
They have to fix prices.
They cannot allow themselves
the freedom to invest their saw
ings. For if they were allowed to
invest freely, they would employ
labor, coal, electricity, steel,
transportation for things, however
desirable in themselves, that
might not be disable as exports
to pay for the food and raw ma
terials they must have to live at
all. Instead of free enterprise,
they are compel led by their
poverty, to ration investment.
There remains the freedom to
work, to choose a job voluntarily
and to quit it for another, and
even not to work at all while
there r savings or some kind
of income which a person can live
on. This freedom - humanity the
mos, important of all-the British
are clinging to. The supreme
question is whether they can feed
themselves, maintain their po-
sition in the world, become fl
nancially solvent and still pre-
serve the freedom of labor.
That is the question which this
momentous White Paper poses.
BALANCED national production
requires a big increase in the
labor force of some industries
and limitation of the expansion of
others. The need for more miners
dominates h e whole scene. Our
food position depends upon more
workers in agriculture. The
housing program depends upon
more workers in the building ma
terials industries, as well as upon
timber. The clothing ration de-
ponds upon more workers in the
cotton and wooden industries; the
supply Of cups and saucers upon
ignore workers in the pottery in
fduttry. On the other hand, further
texpans3on in the number of build
ing workers., II in Me number of
engineering workers, would
threaten to cause under employ
ment for lack Of materials.
Nov that direction of labor
f.EAs been abandoned, there is no
Single measure which the govern
ment c a adopt to bring about
these adjustments. The problem
of certain undetermined in
dustxies can be greatly eased by
the Introduction of new ma
chinery and by the provision of
better amenities for the workers
in them. AS much as possible is
being done on these lines. But
these are for the most part
measures which cannot yield
quick results"
1t goes on to say that ''the ideal
distribution of man power would
involve changes of such magni-
tude that it would be impossible
to bring them about by any
means short of complete war
time direction" That meant in
Britain the compulsory regi-
mentation of all labor-a measure
which we never resorted to.
1t is difficult to see how the
British people can meet their eco
nomic deficiencies a d maintain
the essentials of f r e e labor-un-
less they receive more help from
us than they have been promised.
This concretely is where, and
this in fact is how, the issue is
raised whether freedom C be
preserved in a large part of the
world where freedom, as we