The Coal Experiment
For better or for worse the Coal Industry Nationalisation Bill has had its third reading. There is no reason to modify the opinion expressed in these columns six months ago that "the best that can be said of nationalisation of the coal industry is that no better means of revivifying the industry has been suggested." Mr. Harold Mac- Millan, in the final speech for the Opposition, was content to criticise the Bill only in restrained terms, observing that where Conservatives differed from the Government was not in the purpose but in the suitability and practicability and machinery contained in the Bill. The proof will be in the working, and results here will be some index to probable results in other industries. The Government should not imagine that the moderation of the opposition to this measure is likely to be repeated when similar Bills come up before the House.
• The case for nationalising the iron and steel industry, for example, is not in the remotest degree comparable. The coal industry is in
need of a major technical revolution if the steady decline in pro- duction is to be halted and new recruits induced to work in the coal- fields. On the other hand, the uninterrupted expansion of production in the iron and steel industry is of crucial importance both for in- dustrial recovery at home and trade expansion overseas. Common- sense alone dictates that no hasty step—such as the recent ill-advised statement of the Government—should be taken to nationalise an industry of such complexity until sufficient time has elapsed to enable a soinid judgement to be formed as to the effect of nationalisation on the coal industry, which is by comparison relatively uncompli- cated. Because a case can be made out for the nationalisation of coal, it does not mean for a moment that the same considerations will apply to other major industries.
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