OUR OWN REVOLUTION.
MR. HOOVER has drawn a very dark picture in the National Food Journal of the economic condition of Europe. He is a very able observer, and his evidence may be taken as absolutely impartial ; he has no axe to grind ; he wants to tell the people of Europe the truth ; and the people of Europe will be fools if they do not take to heart what he says. It was natural enough when the guns ceased to go off that men should relax, as a sprinter straightens himself up after a special effort. What ex- hausted Europe evidently did not understand, however, was that the end of the war could not possibly mean a prolonged. relaxation. A breather was admissible—such a thing is often wise or even necessary in the midst of the hardest of contests—but every one ought to have known that when the war was over another war of a different kind but not less severe would begin if we were after all MR. HOOVER has drawn a very dark picture in the National Food Journal of the economic condition of Europe. He is a very able observer, and his evidence may be taken as absolutely impartial ; he has no axe to grind ; he wants to tell the people of Europe the truth ; and the people of Europe will be fools if they do not take to heart what he says. It was natural enough when the guns ceased to go off that men should relax, as a sprinter straightens himself up after a special effort. What ex- hausted Europe evidently did not understand, however, was that the end of the war could not possibly mean a prolonged. relaxation. A breather was admissible—such a thing is often wise or even necessary in the midst of the hardest of contests—but every one ought to have known that when the war was over another war of a different kind but not less severe would begin if we were after all to save Europe. The new war was against scarcity. At present we are not fighting hard. We are malingering. We must achieve our new Ministry of Munitions, our new Conscription, our new Unity of Command, and all the rest of it. As yet we have scarcely begun. The breather turned into a prolonged relaxation ; those who ought to have known better betook themselves again to expensive pleasures and the wild consumption of such luxuries as could be obtained, and thus set a bad example. The working menfor their part behaved as though they believed that Europe could seriously be restocked by strikes for higher wagei and shorter hours, while all the time the prices of necessaries were rising against them owing to the intensive exhaustion of supplies. Mr. Hoover now tells us that Europe faces something worse than insolvency —a word which is used so often that among ordinary people it no longer has power to provoke a shiver. He tells us that Europe is actually threatened with starvation. Her productivity is now less than it was when the war ceased, and if it is not rapidly increased the necessaries obtainable will be insufficient to maintain life and ordinary health.
There are two main lines of action by which the situation may be saved. The first is real not promised economy on the part of the Government. The second is hard work on the part of every able-bodied person whether he or she works with hand or brain.
It is unfortunately very difficult to trace any sincerity or clearness of thought in the rapidly shifting policy of the Government. It is incomprehensible to us that the GOvernment, with all their knowledge of what this nation will do when it is called upon to make an effort, should hesitate to tell the exact truth to the people, and invite them to make another mighty effort to save themselves. For if the people are not saved by their own labour, they cannot be saved at all. Instead of doing this, the Govern- ment continually resort to expedients which are apparently intended to buy off immediate manifestations of dislike and mistrust. They have said that they do not really believe that " profiteering," for example, is a considerable cause of high prices. Yet they behave as though nothing were more important than to fine and imprison a certain number of shopkeepers whose prices have no doubt led people who do not think out things for themselves to exclaim : " Why do the Government allow us to be cheated like this ! " The Prime Minister has the gift of golden speech. He can persuade men in a particular direction as few other men can. He is the same Prime Minister who saw men leap up in response to his words when he urged them on to fresh sacrifices in the war. Why does he not now describe to the country the awful tragedy of refusing to raise wages by the only safe means instead of wasting time on measures which are bound to end in disappointment ? There are many imaginable methods of increasing the comfort of the people which may or may not succeed, but which are much more likely to fail. One or other of them is continually being brought forward, but for some inscrutable reason the only certain plan is neglected. The only certain plan is for people to put their backs so thoroughly into their work that supplies will be enormously increased and prices will fall. Accord- ing to the fall of prices wages will be increased because the purchasing-power of money will be increased. So far as we know, no employer is talking of reducing wages. Never were employers in a more sympathetic or more humble frame of mind—according to the point of view which you choose to take. Therefore any increase in the purchasing-power of money, which might well amount to 50 per cent. within a year or two, will be a sheer addition to the present wages. Why should it be considered incon- ceivable that the mass of the workers, who over and over again have shown their common-sense, should behave in a sensible way now if the situation were made quite clear to them ? We cannot see that it is beyond the range of working-class common-sense for the workers to say to themselves when all the facts were laid before them : "We will refrain from striking for at least a couple of years till we have restocked the country. A rise of three or four shillings in wages, which is all we could expect to win by further strikes, is as nothing compared with the fresh suffering we should cause to ourselves and others, and the further rise in prices which would be caused." In fine, it is our deep conviction that the expedients of the Government to purchase popularity are misleading the public and delaying the re-creation of wealth.
The second duty of the Government is to cut down administrative expenses with a merciless band. " Re- trenchment " was a much-appreciated and almost a popular cry even in the days when living was cheap. To- day it is a vital matter. Week by week we read of debates in Parliament in which the various spokesmen of the Government put up able or ingenious defences to charm the ear or captivate the fancy of the House. No one could deny that on some particular points upon which they have been attacked the Government representatives have made out a good. enough case. But the broad fact remains that expenditure goes on at an appalling rate. The Cabinet hardly confess to any responsibility. The members of the Cabinet seldom take part in these debates. They leave the Heads of Departments to defend themselves. The Prime Minister not only does not speak but seldom visits the House. We are now spending daily more than was spent daily in the second year of the war. The recent Loan did not anything like provide for the extinction of the floating Debt. If the present course is followed, there must be either more loans, which will bring us appreciably nearer the abyss of bankruptcy, or there must be still higher taxation. Nor can higher taxation be regarded as an alternative to bankruptcy, for it is very uncertain that the country could stand more taxes. The effect upon industrial enterprise might be fatal.
Every reader of history knows that there have been periods in the progress of nations when the real power has passed out of the hands of the nominal Government. The old forms may have been carried on, and men may auto- matically have spoken of the supreme power as remaining in the old hands, but as a matter of fact some person, or some group of soldiers, or an influential body of politicians or financiers have grown more powerful than the Govern- ment and have swayed the Government to their will. There is a very great danger of that happening in Great Britain now. The Departments which have been created during the war are carrying on a desperate struggle against abolition. They want to save their jobs, and therefore they want to prove that the work they are doing is indis- pensable. No one can look into the heart of another man, and it would be impossible and unjust to say that any general corrupt motive is at work. In fighting for their existence the Departments are obeying the law of their being, and it may well be that by the unceasing contem- plation of their own deeds they have persuaded themselves that the country cannot get on without them. The looker- on sees most of the game, and the lookers-on in this case are the Cabinet and the nation. If the Cabinet do not assert themselves, they will unquestionably be conquered by their Departments. Of course it is a very disagreeable thing for a Government to give " notice to quit " to men who have served them well. But here again it should be a question, not of what will purchase immediate immunity from trouble, but what is right in principle and necessary in the country's interest. Lord Robert Cecil, speaking recently to the Centre Party, used sonic wise words which we should like to quote :— " I do not myself think that anything the Government can do will remove its unpopularity, but 1 think it is true that its only chance is to have a respectable unpopularity, so that when the causes of unpopularity are forgotten in a few years, people will turn back to them and say, Oh, well, we hated them at the time, but they really were honest, honourable, patriotic men,' and when a fresh difficulty comes upon the country they will return to them again for leadership and advice."
Now to turn to the workers' side of the question. In some ways the signs are very encouraging at the moment. The Yorkshire miners have evidently been chastened by the spectacle of the widespread suffering and the appalling danger which they have created, and have decided to go back to work. The firebrands of the " Triple 'Alliance have utterly failed to impress upon their fellow Trade Unionists their opinions on Direct Action—a policy to justify tyranny if ever there was one—and have wisely chosen a soft place to fall upon. They evidently desire to say as little as they can about the matter for the present. It is the old story over again. The British working man is slow to make up his mind, largely perhaps because he does not think very deeply about any matter till the need for a decision has become urgent. But when he has taken a decision, arrived at apparently by instinct more than by argument, he generally takes a wise one and remains immovable. To-day the strike fever seems to be passing away from him, and having had a look at what Soviet rule means in other countries, and also at the proposals made to him by the would-be Clyde Soviet, and having read something in the papers about alien makers of mischief sending money over to this country in order to stir up strife, he is impressed by the undesirability of all these things. He prefers to go on improving his position by the old Constitutional means. In our opinion, this is what he will long continue to do. We have no doubt that the disclosures made by officials at Scotland Yard are perfectly true, and they are very significant so far as they go. We cannot imagine why some of the newspapers should seem to take pleasure in laughing away every warning of this kind. Attempts at stirring up revolution by violence have undoubtedly been made, and are likely to be made again. Such attempts deserve careful watching much more than ridicule. But if they are carefully watched they will fail, for they are entirely opposed to the instinct of the British worker. We do not ourselves expect ever to see a Red Flag revolution here, with machine-guns firing down the streets to assert the authority of Commissaries of the People.
The fact is that there is a revolution already. Nobody who compares the balance of domestic power in this country with the balance that existed before the war can hesitate to say that a much greater revolution has taken place than that Industrial Revolution which provides the most enlivening pages in the manuals of political economy on which we have all been brought up. The best thing about our present revolution is that, so far as we can judge, every one wishes it to thrive. Employers, except a few stupid laggards, earnestly desire that the standard of comfort for every worker should be not only higher but very much higher than it ever was before. They see how in the United States, for example, cheap things can be produced although all the conditions of production are expensive. But if the disposition of the employer is favourable it postulates, if it is to continue, a capacity for response and co-operation on the part of the workers. We wonder why we have heard little or nothing during the last few months about the Industrial Conference. It will be remembered that at that Conference employers and em- ployees met together and made one of the most wonderful series of joint recommendations which can be found in the history of industry. The Government announced their intention of legislating at once in accordance with these recommendations. Would it not be a wise step—is it not the obvious plan—to keep that Conference at work and in the enjoyment of the great esteem which it so rapidly earned, ? Is there suspicion on either side ? Would it not be to the advantage of the workers themselves to insist that the Conference must be kept in being and play a really important part in the direction of industry ? We wish we had space to deal with the Report issued by the Federation of British Industries entitled The Control of Industry : Nationalisation and Kindred Problems (to be obtained at 39 St. James's Street, S.W. 1). We advise every one who is interested in these subjects to read the Report. Every fair-minded reader, we think, will agree that no recommendations could have been drawn up with a more transparent desire to consult the well-being and prosperity of the workers. It is only one of many signs that we are not expecting a revolution, but are living in the midst of a very satisfactory one now.
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