DOCTRINAIRES AND THE DYE SCHEME.
rilHE debate in the House of Commons on the Govern- ment dye scheme revealed that Assembly . at its worst. At a time of political truce and of national warfare it might have been imagined that the House of Commons in dealing with a scheme for securing a supply of dye- stuffs essential to our industries would have been severely practical. Instead its behaviour might be described as ' blank misgivings of creatures moving about in worlds unrealized.' We are perfectly willing in time of war to suspend principles of fiscal policy which in time of peace we still hold to be sound. Our position, indeed, was made perfectly clear two or three weeks ago when we pointed out that every rational Free Trader looked upon Free Trade simply as a means to an end, and not as a divinely inspired gospel to be followed at all costs. But though we are not going to demand any bowing of the knee to the decrees of academic Free Trade, we are not going to advocate some vague form of Protection merely to show our patriotism and independence. What is wanted is a sound, practical, businesslike scheme for providing the textile industries with the dyes. But this, unfortunately, is what the Government seem quite unable to suggest.
The problem is essentially a war problem. We have at the present moment to provide ourselves as quickly as possible with the dyes which we can no longer obtain from Germany. It is not necessary here to go into the details of the successive schemes which the Government have pro- duced. Mr. Walter Runciman made an effective defence of the latest of these schemes, and stated that the capital was being rapidly subscribed; but lie did not receive soy enthusiastic support for his scheme even from the most faithful members of his party. One cannot help suspecting that the mere fact that the Government have intervened in the matter partly explains the delay in getting an efficient scheme to work. Our great textile manufacturers understand the needs of their own business fairly well, and if at the outset of this difficulty they had been bluntly told by the Government that it was their business to get the dye-stuffs they wanted, the probability is that already they would have been a long was advanced towards this end. All they were entitled to ask for was the withdrawal of the obstacles which the Government have for so many years placed in the way of the free use of alcohol in industry. This is a grievance which has again and again been urged by manufacturers in the finer branches of chemistry, yet it is not until the present crisis that the Government come forward and propose to deal with this question, and then
only as incidental to a particular branch of chemical manufacture.
The difficulties of the actual position have undoubtedly been exaggerated. It is true that certain dyes have gone up in price enormously ; but there are several flourishing manufacturing concerns in the kingdom now turning out large numbers of dyes at a very handsome profit. Again, it is admitted that we can obtain from Switzerland most of the dyes we require, provided only that Switzerland is supplied by us with the raw material. This is one of the matters for which Mr. Runciman claims that his Govern- ment scheme is providing ; but here again it is not easy to see why Government. intervention is necessary. It is a purely commercial matter for British firms to supply Swiss manufacturers with the raw material which is available in this country and only requires to be shipped to Genoa.
Incidentally it must be noted that the idea of developing a Swiss dyeing industry conflicts with the idea, on which so much stress has been laid in the Press, of making Great Britain independent of foreign dye-stuffs. If it were really true that it is a disadvantage to this country to buy dyes from abroad, that proposition would apply as much to dyes obtained in Switzerland as to those obtained in Germany. Indeed, it is more than probable that the Swiss firms, or some of them, are completely under German control. On the whole there is grave reason to fear that the question has been approached both by Liberals and Unionists front a political rather than from a national point of view. The Unionists, or at any rate the Tariff Reform wing of that party, have sought to make capital out of our dependence upon German dye-stuffs. The Liberals have scented an oppor- tunity for an extension of State Socialism. It is also important to take note of a very human consideration that influences every politician—the desire to be in the limelight. A Minister who can appear before the public as the author of a big scheme for supplying this, that. or the other, and incidentally risking some millions of public money, is in a more attractive political position than a Minister who sternly says: "This is the business of manufacturers themselves. It is not the business of the Government."
Whether the present scheme will or will not go through is as yet uncertain. Although Mr. Runciman declares that part. of the capital has been subscribed, it is certain that there has been great difficulty in getting even the limited promise of support already secured. Yet there is no dearth of capital in the country, and, as we all know, in normal times any well-advertised scheme can secure considerable support. Even from the point of view of the purely partisan Free Trader the Government scheme is objection. able, for though it is avowedly put forward as an alterna- tive to the Unionist demand for Tariff Reform, it contains within itself great risk of Protection. For if the plan should fail on its financial side, the Government would lie almost compelled to introduce a tariff to protect the capital they have embarked. We shall have, indeed, a repetition of the idiotic blunder made by the Government in buying up sugar at a high price and then excluding foreign sugar when the price began to fall.
Nor is the present a time when the Government ought to be risking any portion of the public credit. Wo want the whole of our credit and all the cash we can spare for the successful prosecution of the war, and it is a grave misfortune for the nation that there is no adequate force within the Cabinet exerting itself in favour of public economy. On this point Sir T. Whittaker, in the debate in the House of Commons on war finance, made a strong appeal to the Government urging the need for economy on
the Civil Services. But there was no response to the appeal. The Civil Service Estimates for the coming year have reached the enormous figure of £90,717,000, and there is not the slightest sign of any attempt to curtail wasteful expenditure.
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