THE FORGOTTEN CONSUMER
By R. A. SCOTT-JAMES
THE choice between parties—Conservative, Liberal, Labour or something else—apparently presents considerable difficulties to many politically-minded young men contemplating a political career. One of them, one of a number who have been meeting and comparing ideas, was explaining to me the other day their hopes and doubts. They are anxious to take a hand in politics. But where do they belong? What party should they join? They are convinced that this country is drifting perilously between Scylla on the right and Charybdis on the left. They are progressive, but distrust the Socialism of the present Government, which they fear will unwittingly destroy initia- tive and individual liberty and overstrain the economic capacity of the country to breaking-point. They equally distrust the big-business element, which in their opinion always tends to dominate the Con- servative Party. The Liberal Party they regard as doctrinaire, moribund, leaderless and discredited—no safe harbour for ambitious young men. Through what channel shall they seek an outlet for their energies, their interest in politics, and the ability they believe them- selves to possess?
. Their minds are moving in the direction of forming themselves into an association or league which should not itself be a party, or be associated with any particular party, but should make itself felt within any or all of them, or independently. What, I asked, are the central ideas in the programme? I had been told very clearly what they were not, what they were opposed to, but I had not yet gathered what the positive platform was. We began to talk it out, and soon, by a lucky turn in the conversation, the answer presented itself. 'What was wanted, plainly, was a policy which would satisfy certain needs at present shamefully neglected and at the same time commend itself to every man, woman and child in the country. We were speaking of the needs of the consumer—and there was the platform. It is the consumer who is overlooked at every turn in the political moves of today, who receives the least consideration from any political party. Yet his interests are those of the whole nation.
Take the case of the nationalisation of coal. It might seem that every aspect of that matter has been discussed by protagonists in Parliament. The interests of the coal-owners have been adequately stated and the question of compensation debated. The Government has obviously looked after the case of the mine-workers and their trade union. The functions of the Coal Board, the machinery of operation at the top and in the districts, the plan for promoting efficient administration, have been explained and debated ; and attention has been given to the power that will remain in the hands of the Minister as the responsible agent of the. Government. The parts to be played by the Government, the executives, the mine- workers have always been kept in view. But can the same thing be said about the position of the industrialists and the householders for whom the coal is produced, who buy it and depend on it for their business and the warming of their houses—just those people, in fact, for whom the whole structure exists? Their interests, one might have supposed, would have been considered first. But no—they are rele- gated, as by an after-thought, to the scrutiny of a consultative body which appears to have no real powers of any kind. Nor is the neglect of this supreme interest attributable only to the Government. It has never been presented as a major consideration' by the Opposition. It has never been in the limelight during twenty-five years' discussion of the coal problem. The case for the consumer goes by default. The consumer is Everyman. But he is nobody's child.
This strange neglect of the interest which is far greater than any other=being that of the whole nation—is not only conspicuous in the case of coal. It occurs whenever an industrial situation is thrust on public attention. Some years before the war, when the question arose of introducing tariffs to protect iron and steel, the Government thought it necessary to impose certain conditions upon the industry. It had to be satisfied that rationalisation would be effective. But no adequate provision was made to insure against high prices in the home market and safeguard the interests of the user. Today, when nationalisation of transport is under debate, the Opposition has had a great deal to say about the inadequacy of the compensation to be paid to shareholders of the railways and the inefficiency which it expects under bureaucracy, but has never given equal prominence to the possible sufferings of transport users—the men and women who travel by train and 'bus, and the traders who want their goods carried. It is for them that the railways and road-vehicles exist ; but theirs is the interest which has the least consideration from either side.
Wage disputes arise in industries big and small. Employers and trade unions meet in solemn controversy, the employers endeavouring to keep down the increases, the unions to keep them up. Their repre- sentatives go through the tortuous procedure of battle-mock-battle- for when the employers have elaborately fought and lost to the degree that they expected, and have yielded according to plan, then they very calmly make the best of a bad job. Why not? The burden they have shouldered is not borne by them, but is handed on in increased prices —to the consumer. But in none of these debates between employer and employee was the consumer admitted even as an observer. He was the most interested party, but he was not consulted. It is his lot simply to pay, and p'y, and pay again. And if he does, among those who settle the matter who cares? It is only in the case of sudden, unauthorised strikes such as that of the haulage workers, where the attack was a direct one on consumers of food, that the consumers' interest is recognised as paramount and may even call for the use of troops. In other words, it requires an emergency to produce action on their behalf.
The old battles, long ago, were between trade unions and em- ployers ; and they were real battles, for the latter feared either the loss of profits or the loss of customers, or both. In these days of scarcity they fear neither. The cost of production determines the price—and if the cost goes up the rise is the same for all the pro- ducers, who stand together as employers ; there is no fear of com- petition. At the higher prices the goods will be absorbed by the consumer, since there is scarcity and more demand than supply. If warfare in recent times between employers and trade unions has con- spicuously lacked the old bitterness, that is because it is not real warfare ; the " two sides " in industry are in the trade together, banded together as producers, and the only person who has to stand the racket is the consumer, the man in the street. Everyman, who never—except in an emergency—figures in the battle, is never con- sulted, and is for ever victimised. Hence the move towards inflation, checked only by devices of quite a different nature artificially imposed
the Government.
The consumer is Everyman, but Everyman does not raise his voice except in helpless inarticulate grumbles. No party espouses •his cause. He is seldom named in Parliamentary debates. Every interest is considered exhaustively except his, the supreme interest. Yet his is the case of every manufacturer who uses the manufactured goods of other industries. as his raw material ; of every business man who uses goods increasing in price and emtiloys labour becoming more expen sive as the cost of living rises ; of every rentier whose income is fixed ; of every housewife who queues in the shops ; of all who suffer from enormous taxes on pleasure (which are, in effect, deductions from wages, ingeniously contrived by remorseless Chancellors of the Exchequer); of every man and woman• who has a vote to give ; of every journalist who has the power of ventilating a grievance. How strange that when so many voices are raised in controversy the con- sumer should be so meek, and that when young men are seeking a cause to espouse they should overlook this, the most popular cause of all, concerning a grievance that is never redressed and rights that are never exercised f
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