Industrial Planning
The four main-line railway companies have not been content with publicising—as they were fully justified in doing—the stupendous task they have carried through in bearing the ever- growing burden of military and civilian traffic during the war. They have also set forth in some detail their post-war plans for restoring their rolling-stock, reconstructing their 'stations, and building up services faster, finer and in every way better than anything they achieved before. It is all to the good that this great basic industry, whatever its future Management or control may be, should be laying its plans with some precision, and thinking out a programme of development which would doubtless have to be spread over many years. A forecast such as the railway companies have made is one that ought to be undertaken by every great industry within its own sphere. The cotton industry, as has been emphatically shown, stands in need of re-equipment on a large scale if it is to compete on equal terms with the American cotton industry. The coal trade has been in need of reorganisation for a quarter of a century, with appropriate amalgamations on the control side and labour-saving machinery on the operative side ; but there nothing will be done or prepared on an adequate scale till the Government has declared its long-term policy. In the woollen industry, iron and steel, shipbuilding, engineering, programmes of future 'work should be in preparation, though in some cases they cannot go a long way until national policy is clearer than it is at present. Progress, of course, is being made with some of the housing schemes, and some of the motor firms have been preparing for the switch-over from war to peace. Before demobilisation begins the picture of British industry, as re- organised for peace, ought to be as complete as possible. Only with such a picture available can priorities for labour and materials be properly fixed, and full advantage taken of export markets, tem- porarily at least wide open.
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