News of the Week
Economy and the Parties ECONOMY, easy to preach and hard to practise, is the primary need of our country at this moment. It seems clear that the Government now recognize the fact. But many, if not most, of their supporters have yet to be persuaded that Sir George May's Committee was not merely a device of " Big Business " to check social reform. Thus the real test of the Government's power to achieve any serious reduction of expenditure will come when the Prime Minister and his colleagues of the Cabinet Committee meet the General Council of the Trades Union Congress and the National Executive Of the Labour Party to discuss the Government proposals for meeting the emergency. This meeting is arranged for Thursday, after these pages have gone to press. We cannot predict the result, but, notwithstanding recent disappointments, we hold fast to our belief in the good sense and patriotism of the Labour leaders. If and when they are convinced that drastic economies are necessary to the national welfare, they will not fail the Government or the country.
