23 OCTOBER 1942, Page 4

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

ISEE someone has written a book about Sir Stafford Cripps. It is called simply Cripps, which has the merit of indicating the subject better than some titles do, and though it does not strike me as a very good book (it is written, by the way, by Froome Tyler, published by Harrap, and costs 6s.), there is some interest in a brief discussion of the Lord Privy Seal's future. On that the writer affirms that after the war we shall need a leader of exceptional ability and adaptability, a man who has long ago freed his mind from party dogmas, a man prepared to seek a synthesis of systems and policies, a man with a great love of the common people—and that the one man with all these qualifications, and others, is Sir Stafford Cripps. The question of national leadership after the war is obviously of capital importance. It will be surprising if Mr. Churchill, having achieved a supreme reputation as a war-Premier, is unwise enough to risk losing it as a peace-Premier. He will assume the honourable position of the greatest of our elder statesmen (and occasionally make life rather unliVable for younger statesmen). But will it be Sir Stafford who will take his place? It is all very well to free your mind from party dogmas, but if you free yourself from party altogether you cannot, at normal times, lead the House of Commons. Sir Stafford has no party today, and I do not quite see him fitting into any orthodox Conservative, or Labour, or Liberal mould. He might build a party of his own, but that is a formidable business. Moreover, he has yet to establish a reputa- tion as a great Parliamentarian, which he can hardly do while half the normal work of leader of the House is given to Mr. Attlee. It is not sufficient to ask, " If not Cripps, who? " There are many possible answers to that.

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These episcopal and other denunciations of " the profit-motive in industry " are getting a little overdone. I have never been able to understand the generic difference between the salary-motive and the profit-motive. Trade is not intrinsically evil ; it is a public benefit. A man buys all kinds of things I want, getting them indirectly from the ends of the earth and bringing them all to one place near my house so that I can choose for myself. Having done so he sells to me at a rather higher price than he bought at, and out of the difference pays for the rent of his shop, the salaries of his staff if he has any, meets various other expenses and keeps his family in more or less tolerable comfort. If he does this as an independent shopkeeper he is animated by the profit-motive, and therefore to be reprobated ; if he happens to be a manager, paid by salary by a multiple firm, he i3 a good and faithful servant, however much he may be labouring legitimately or scheming illegitimately to get a better post at a higher salary, or the salary attaching to his present post increased. This is an ethical dis- tinction which I find hard to follow. But perhaps it is only the profit-motive of manufacturers, not of merchants, that is vicious, though I should have thought the same considerations applied in both cases. It may be all to the good to limit excessive profits permanently, as they are being limited in war-time ; it may be all to the good to convert ms.ny staple undertakings to public utility corporations, where everyone gets salaries and the shareholders a limited dividend ; but to damn " the profit-motive" without qualification as something ricessarily flagitious seems to me neither sound morals nor sound sense, nor, for that matter, sound religion.

In these price-fixing days there is one piece of price-fixing I should particularly like to see carried out. Any authoritative writer on Biblical subjects nowadays emphasises the necessity of consulting Moffatt's translation of the Bible, which holds a place completely its own among non-official translations in any country. But there is one difficulty in the way, the price, for the cheapest edition costs a guinea and it runs, in better bindings, up to three guineas. This is singularly unfortunate. The book is no longer than the Authorised or Revised Version, and editions of the latter, admirably printed and bound (and with excellent maps, which the Moffatt version lacks), can be bought for 3s. 6d. Why the discrepancy?

I am quite sure that it is not due to the author's desire for royalties. Dr. Moffatt laboured, like all scholars, for the benefit of humanity, and he would certainly wish his book to be in as many hands as possible. The publishers, I suggest, might reasonably consider whether they cannot come some way towards meeting the needs of the ordinary person, in particular the ordinary parson.

* * * The question of first-class _carriages (how completely forgotten are the days of second-class) is not altogether negligible. " They ought to be abolished," was the decided verdict of a third-class jury, to whose views I listened silently the other day. On the whole I disagree. First-class places ought not to be kept vacant when third-class passengers are without seats, but there are many classes of people, invalids, the aged, or those who want to utilise a train-journey for important work, that should be entitled, if• they care to pay the substantial increment of 5o per cent, over third-class fare, to the relative peace and comfort which a first-class compartment provides. At present there is too much tendency for third-class passengers to think they have a right to first-class seats for third- class fares. A Ministry of Transport ruling that the specific per- mission of a railway official is necessary in such cases seems both seasonable and fair.

* * * * Servicemen's underclothing, pyjamas in particular, has, I think, been sufficiently aired (if I may so put it) in this column by now, so this is in all probability a p.p.c. paragraph. More people than I supposed are apparently content to sleep in their day-linen (I am not speaking, of course, of active service), though it hardly seems a practice to be advocated. A naval writer, who went straight from Oxford to the lower deck, declares himself astounded at the scrupulous cleanliness of the British sailor, and mentions that in the Navy a rating on entry is kitted up completely (which does not include pyjamas), and gets the sum of k2 6s. a quarter for " kit upkeep," out of which he can well afford to buy pyjamas, which cost at present at Service stores 7s. ad. So when the Spirit of Night swiftly walks over the western wave the odds are that it (? she) will find the Navy suitably clad.

* * * * " It all depends on you," said (I think) Archbishop Lord Lang, very impressively, early in the war. " It all depends on the cows," Said Lord Woolton, not less impressively, on Tuesday. As what he was discussing was the milk-supply, he is probably right. * * * * I learn with satisfaction and relief that the "Salvage Sunday "