On Tuesday the principal interest in the House was in
the Labour Party's Socialist motion, proposed by Mr. Snowden in a characteristically capable. speech. The motion was as follows "That, in view of the failure of the capitalist system to ade- quately utilize and organize natural resources and productive power, or to provide the necessary standard of-life for vast munbers, of the population, and believing that the cause of this failure lies in the private ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, this House declares that legislative effort should be directed to the gradual supersession of the capitalist system by an industrial and' social order based on the public ownership and democratic control of the instruments of production. and distribution."
Sir Alfred Mond moved a Liberal amendment as follows :- "That this House, believing that the abolition of private interest in the means of production and distribution would impoverish the people and aggravate existing evils, is unalterably opposed to any scheme of legislation which would deprive the State of the benefits of individual initiative, and believing that far-reaching measures of social redress may be accomplished without over- turning the present basis of society, is resolved to prosecute pro-• pose's which, by removing the evil effects of monopoly and waste, will conduce to the well-being of the people."
We deal with the underlying principles of the debate in our leading colomns.
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