WAITING FOR MONDAY
With all their differences Mr. Attlee and Mr: Morrison on the one side, and Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden on the other, are on one point in full agreement—that the road to recovery will be long and hard. It will, and the sacrifices so be borne by all sections of the Population will be heavy. The situation is what it is, regardless of how it came to be what it is ; a way must be found out of it, and the way must be hard. The problem is twofold—to stop the dollar drain by selling more to dollar countries and buying less from them ; and to prevent shortages of good? and rising prices at home from aggravating inflation further. If wage-claims are to be pressed, of which there are some ominous signs, and the Government's apparent readiness to do something for the lowest paid workers in certain industries is to be opposed by the unions unless increases are made all up the scale so as to preserve the "differential," then the outlook for the country is sombre indeed. But relations between the Govern- ment and the Trades Union Congress (represented by its General Council) are close and there is no reason to-assume an inevitable clash. That, if it happened, might have all but fatal consequences.
But the dominating financial problem concerns. the dollar and not other currencies. It can only be solved by :nore production, not by more taxation. In such crisesa capital levy is always advocated. In this crisis such an expedient. would be as disastrous as it would he unjust. It would be a plain breach of the spirit, if not of the
letter, of Sir Stafford Cripps's undertaking that last year's special levy was being imposed for once only and would not be repeated. It would penalise intolerably holders of stocks and shares whose value has been reduced by anything up to 40 per cent. in the past two years, partly by Government action and partly by other causes. And it would complete the process, which crushing taxation has carried so far, of making personal saving, once the basis of national stability, simple plain folly. If national recovery is to be finally frustrated this would be the shortest way to achieve that disastrous end. The country will hear a hard sentence passed on Monday. It is ready for sacrifices, but they must be sacrifices based on reason and justice.
