Control of Industry
IT is impossible to exaggerate the importance of popular education in relation to the social and economic aspects of post-war recon- struction. The test of our democracy will be the way in which ordinary people accept their civic responsibilities by playing their part in the electoral machine, and exerting an enlightened public opinion on matters of Government policy. It is from this point of view that we must look at Industry After the War, the first of a series of " Targets for Tomorrow " to be published from an editorial board which comprises Sir William Beveridge, Dr. Julian Huxley, and Sir John Orr. This new venture merits a hearty welcome, and if it continues as it has begun it will contribute very substantially to civic education.
Mr. Madge has done a workmanlike job. He has marshalled his facts well, and sketched his target clearly, both with commendable brevity. He describes the manner in which the control of industry has been exercised in the past, and emphasises the extent to which free competition has given place to monopoly or quasi-monopoly, which so frequently restricts both production and employment in the interest of prices and profits. Possible forms of posi-witr in- dustrial organisation are considered, and attention is drawn to recent pronouncements by groups of industrialists who pay lip service to free competition, but look forward to a future in which the State will give its backing to monopolies, trade associations, &c., and virtually hand over the control of industry to them. Mr. Madge does not swing away from this corporate form of organisation to the other extreme of wholesale nationalisation. His book is essentially realistic, and his target a programme of practical possi- bilities which could be realised after the war if we are ready to make changes and to experiment but do not wish to launch a frontal assault on the fundamentals of our present system. He follows the lead of the Prime Minister and other prominent spokesmen who have pictured the waggon of production being drawn along a middle road into the future by a pair of horses, State con- trol and Private enterprise. We are asked to visualise some part of industry brought completely under State ownership and control, another sphere in which privately owned industry comes under State management, and yet another part of the industrial field left entirely in the hands of private business. In particular, we are to think of the State playing a larger part in research and in a technical advisory capacity. All this, it is held, would be within the broad framework of an economic plan made by a sort of economic general staff. If any particular private industry showed itself unable to live up to the requirements of the plan, by failing to achieve the 'quantity or quality of product required, or through failing to satisfy standards of price and employment, then the State would step in and substitute public for private control in that particular sphere.
The format of the book is unusually attractive, a distinct achieve- ment in these days. There are numerous photographs and some interesting diagrams and charts. The appearance of this book is extremely important, for it will prevent it being read merely by those who already have a taste for economics, and are addicted to the study of brave new worlds. This is a book which will attract the casual buyer at the bookstall, or the casual borrower in the library. The Serviceman, not much of a reader, will pick it up enquiringly in a Forces reading room. It is a fairly safe bet that those who chance to light on this book will read it through, and they will learn a good deal. So far as the paper shortage will permit, it looks as if "Targets for To-morrow" are going to fill a real educational need.
DOUGLAS DAVIDSON.
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