Mr. Morrison's Warnings
• In his speech at West Bromwich last Sunday Mr. Herbert Morrison repeated the necessary warning that the years following the war would bring a situation calling just as much for sacrifice, effort and patriotism as the war-years themselvei ; there will continue to be shortages of almost everything ; there will be priorities which must be studied if other countries are to be saved from famine and if our own export trade is to recover. Prices and supplies will have to be controlled, perhaps for two or three years, just as in war-time. Industry must submit to restraints, and our freedom to buy and sell must to some extent be litnited, and we should be prepared to resist the campaign which is sure to be let loose by those who think we can simply step back into 1939—or 1919. Though Mr. Morrison agrees with Mr. Churchill that the war effort must come first, he insists that the waging of war and the planning of peace are two sides of a single process. On Saturday he was urging the Labour Party in particular to set about the work of educating the public on the issue of the relation between the State and industry—between public ownership or public control on the one side, and big industries organised for restriction, monopoly and high prices on the other. But the question is one that has to be faced not by the Labour Party alone, or primarily. Enlightened people of all parties, alive to the necessity of the planning of industry for full production and full employment, and not tolerant of restrictive monopolies, are disposed to look for a solution which will not be governed by party shibboleths. That there will be room for the systems both of public and of private ownership is certain. On where the line should be drawn between them opinions may differ.
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