Railways or Guns ?
One of the most serious effects of the boom conditions prevailing in several industries and of the demands of rearma- ment for goods and services is dearly illustrated by the statement of the London Passenger Transport Board last week that they have found it necessary to cut down their expansion programme on the ground of increased costs. The decision means that certain parts of the £40,000poo expansion programme which received Parliamentary sanction last year will be postponed ; the extension of the Baker- loo Tube to Camberwell, the electrification of the suburban lines of the main line railways and improvements made necessary by the increasing pressure on the Board's services must all be put off. The Board is hardly to be blamed ; for the cost of its programme has to be reconciled with its takings and the demands of its shareholders. Under present conditions, the cost would be uneconomic owing to the sharp rise in the price both of materials and of skilled labour, of which there is a shortage owing to the increased demands of rearmament and other industries. Thus have additions to the country's wealth to be sacrificed to the production of instruments of destruction. The prospect is the more serious because an end of the rise in costs and growing shortage of skilled labour is hardly yet in sight.
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