THE FUTURE BECKONS
pirHE most distinctive and welcome feature of the Govern- ment's economic policy has been that it rests on an appeal to hope rather than to fear. Before Mr. Butler went to the Treasury. the country was continually urged tO make a supreme effort in order to avoid what as called 'a total collapse.' The bogey raised its head at approximately six-inonthly intervals, but it was always laid in time by means Which no one could exactly understand but which certainly did not include any consciously herculean effort by the Community at large. Mr. Butler has put an end to all this; We get our inspiration now from looking to the horizon rather Uly, art peering into the mouth of hell. The slogan is 'Invest in Success' not 'Avoid Disaster.'
The new note has seldom been better struck than in the series of articles now running in the Daily Mail on Britain's economic future. Their theme is Mr. Butler's dictum at the Conservative Party Conference that the nation's standard of living can be doubled in twenty-five years. The Mail is driving the lesson home not by statistics but by rapportage of the best kind. It is a valuable contribution towards creating one of the absolutely essential conditions for achieving Mr. Butler's 401—confidence that it is within our power.'
The main material conditions are a steady flow of money Into capital development, low enough costs to enable us to Compete effectively in foreign markets, willingness to work and to accept the new aids to efficiency which science can offer. Given all this, there is nothing intrinsically improbable in the assumption that we shall be able to maintain the present rate °f improvement in production. The Government can set an example of daring and faith, as it is doing in its large plans Of capital investment in the coal, gas and electricity industries. though the public must not be allowed to forget that these Zust be financed at the cost of potential consumption. . dusty will certainly not be encouraged to follow this example, llowever, so long as the element of risk in investment continues, 48 the result of the level of taxation, to bulk so much larger Ulan that of opportunity. Equally, the rank and file of labour Will not shake off the restrictionist mentality of the Thirties unless it can be readily convinced of the probability of\a long period of steady economic progress.
In one important respect the Daily Mail's campaign needs supplementing. The prospect of a Wellsian utdpia of atomic; welfare in 1980 is more stimulating than the spectacle of imminent doom, but, for a practical and sceptical people, it is still remote. For many people in the higher managerial ranges of the industrial hierarchy and for the workers them- selves, the chance of seeing some return before the next quarter of a century is over would be encouraging. Mr. Butler's task is to establish the proper proportion between birds in the hand and birds in the bush. Essentially. the country's future depends upon his ability to restore the connection between personal effort and personal gain. This must be the great overriding theme of Conservative policy.
Previous page
