Coal Today and Tomorrow
Both Sir Stafford Cripps' past and his possible future invest any contribution he makes to the discussion of social and industrial con- ditions in this country with considerable importance. For the present, as he has recently explained, men of all parties have to suspend the advocacy of certain policies they may favour, that all may unite single-mindedly in the common task, but the Lord Privy Seal will inevitably be in the van of every social reform movement after the war. In addressing a meeting at Mountain Ash, in the heart of the South Wales coal country, on Sunday, he made it clear that the reorganisation of the coal industry now being carried out was in no danger of reversal after the war, unless indeed the miners themselves by laxity of effort robbed it of the prospects of success. As a former advocate of nationalisation Sir Stafford claimed that the present scheme did meet two of the needs which had attracted him to State ownership and control, the achievement of maximum output and the larger association of the miners themselves in the conduct of the industry, but he referred significantly to the time
when Parliament would have to decide on- the permanence of the scheme " or the application of some more extensive form of control." No doubt Sir Stafford himself has his own ideas as to what the nature of that control should be, for the present scheme will need in various respects to be carried farther. The advocates of a public utility corporation scheme for coal are sharply challenged by Mr. Oscar Hobson in an article on another p-age. If his arguments are valid the search for an alternative must continue. It is to be noted that Lord Reith, in raising in the House of Lords on Wednesday the question of the control of public services after the war, suggested, as suitable objects for the Public Corporation form of control, the railways, roads, canals, coastwise shipping and transport generally, but did not include coal.
Previous page
