"If Eno-land is to Live
A National Plan advanced by Sir Oswald :Mosley. (Macmil- lan. 6d.) THE feature of the "Mosley proposals" on which public atten- tion has been chiefly concentrated is the alleged desire of Sir Oswald and his supporters to set up five Dictators. In the
pamphlet now issued, however, the seventeen Members of Parliament of the "go-ahead group" make it clear that their intentions are not in any way anti-democratic. "Broadly we bay to the Electorate : 'Choose whatever Government you like. But when you have chosen it, for Heaven's sake let it get on with the job without being frustrated and baffled at every turn by a legislative and administrative procedure designed for the express purpose of preventing things being done.'" They desire to make the will of the nation effective, not to stifle or coerce it.
According to the authors the three essentials to a successful issue out of our difficulties are (a) that a way out of the crisis should not be looked for in reductions of wages or attacks on
social services, (b) that any programme dealing with the crisis must be a practical one, and (c) that employers and workers should meet the emergency by common effort. No one,
surely, can question the soundness of this approach, whatever our opinion of the actual remedies suggested. Wage-cuts would be bitterly resented in industry : they would not only be fiercely resisted, they would further reduce the purchasing power of the home market by at least as much as they increased our competitive power in foreign markets. Secondly, the mood and moment demand decisive action : this is no time for the elaboration of diagrammatic Constitutions tracing responsibility from King to Parish Counsellor. We are faced with an emergency in which the whole structure of our society is threatened ; instead of burning incense before the altars of our political deities we must find work for more than two million of our people ; and in such a situation the qualities of common sense and co-operation which carried us through the War must serve us again.
Coming to definite proposals, emphasis is laid not on "Pro- tection," but on the vital necessity to safeguard our home markets by methods—control of imports, Empire develop- ment, and national planning, as well as tariffs—for which the authors find the convenient name of "Insulation."
"The whole case presented here is that we must face the fact that our old export trade is bound to be more and more threatened and curtailed by the actions of foreign countries, which we cannot control. It is a fact which must be recognized and dealt with, and it cuts right across the existing economic structure of Great Britain. Almost every nation in the world has shown itself deter- mined to establish all the principal industries within its own borders. Even where it costs them a great deal to do so, they are making for themselves many of the things they used to buy from us. They do this by putting up high tariff walls behind which their own infant industries grow up. The industrialization of markets behind tariff barriers is happening all over the world. It may be very stupid of foreign nations, even from their own point of view, to do this, but the point is that they have done it."
We cannot put back the hands of the clock. The Free Trade theory that the free play of economic forces should settle what nations should produce what commodities is hard driven to justify itself in practice, for other nations will not play the game ; and it is difficult to see how we can build up the standard of life which our workers have learnt to expect, if they are to be exposed to the shocks of economic anarchy now prevalent throughout the world.
"Of course, it would be theoretically better to plan the whole world as a single unit [the authors write] but no one has the power to do that. Therefore, you must start somewhere. The only area in which we can start is Great Britain. The existence of the Empire Commonwealth gives us great oppor- tunity to extend the essential principle of planning and order from the nation to a whole section of the globe. . • . 40 per cent. of our export trade is especially susceptible to planning and protection "—that is, our Imperial trade. Moreover, given the large-scale production which our home and Empire markets would make possible if fostered under the Mosley plan, it is arguable that our export trade would be in a better condition than it is now in our fiscally-defenceless state.
The control of imports, and economic partnership with the Dominions and Colonies on the basis of mutual advantage are the first two items in the Mosley programme ; the third National Planning with a National Investment Board to mobilize our capital resources, and to promote research and invention, including such useful enterprises as the production of smokeless fuel on a commercial scale. We are also -given some details of currency reform, and some suggestions for the reconstruction of Parliament, but in the limited space at my disposal I would rather refer to their scheme for National Slum Clearance, because in my view it is an admirable one, being almost exactly along the lines which the Spectator has long advocated. The rehousing of slum dwellers (as distinct from the new housing needs of the fairly well-to-do, which should be left to private enterprise) is a matter which cannot be tackled piecemeal, but must be preceded by a nation-wide survey of the situation, and prosecuted with all the financial and administrative power of the State.
Sir John Tudor Walters has already shown what can be done by building 15,000 houses by mass production methods, and only last week he suggested a means whereby half a million men might be put to work. In order to start right, however, it will be necessary to enlist the active support of the Building Unions, and to finance the new works put in hand by some scheme such as the issue of Slum Clearance Bonds. I am glad to see that the authors suggest that "this large scale effort would not be conducted by Whitehall; but by a Housing Board constituted by Statute."
The less Socialism there is in our housing schemes the better, but we need not be frightened by catchwords. In the planning of areas and in providing building materials the sometimes pettifogging efforts of Local Authorities cannot be allowed to delay or override the national desire that mit abominable housing conditions should be remedied within this generation. The Mosley group are the first political party to come forward with a clear-cut policy on Housing which looks as if it might succeed. They should get in touch with Mr. Bossom, the architect and L.C.C. alderman who recently made in the Spectator some excellent suggestions for relieving the congestion of London ; together they might wake up our municipal Bumbles and drive them into action.
Here are seventeen representative men—mostly young and all very much in earnest—who have produced a scheme -which is neither very partizan nor wholly impossible of realization. In addition, it is eminently readable and unquestionably sincere. The diatribes of theorists who imagine that any call to action is a threat to democracy, and the sneers of those who accuse them of self-seeking, will not deter these young men from their purpose. They should have the best wishes of all who put patriotism before party.
F. YEATS-BROWN.
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