The State and the Arms Industry While nothing further has-been
heard of the pmn-iised enquiry in this country into certain aspects of the,inanu- facture of arms, President Roosevelt in the United States is clearly contemplating legislation of far-reaching importance on the subject, involving, according to some reports, the complete nationalization of the industry. That may be the ultimate result, but the immediate aims of the committee the President is appointing tozprepare legislation are efficient industrial mobilization and the elimination of what are called war-profits—which seems to suggest a distinction—not necessarily irrational— between profits• made during war and profits made, out of preparations for war. On another page of this, issue M. Pierre Cot enumerates the considerations which led him, as Minister in charge of a fighting department, to conclude that in France at any rate the nationalization of the armaments industry would be advantageous from the military and financial as well as the moral point of view. There is clearly ample material for the new committee in this country to study under that head. But the appointment of a body with limited -powers, whose report is likely to be of the nature of whitewash, is still to be feared. The American Senate's committee had considerable funds allotted to it and was able to employ a corps of investigators, empowered to call for private documents, for months in advance. Nothing less than a Royal Commission would enjoy anything like that competence here.
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