Waiting for the T.U.C.
The silence in which the General Council of the T.U.C. does its work of considering the report of a sub-committee set up a month ago on the questions arising from the fuel crisis and the Economic Survey for 1947 has so far only been broken by a leakage of information which has done something to strengthen both hopes and fears. Most hopeful of all is the firm report that the T.U.C. con- siders that the coal target for 1947 should be raised to 220,000,000 tons. It has been clear throughout that the Government had set its sights too low in the Economic Survey, but after a few weeks of uncertainty in which there had been a disquieting tendency to accept 200,000,000 tons as the maximum production and the import of coal in 1947 as inevitable, it is encouraging to hear that the General Council will take a different line. Its weight also seems likely to be exerted on the side of reason in proposals to speed up the rate of release from the armed forces and to ensure that the balance of British industry is not further upset by panic concentration on narrow sectors of difficulty. But it is still too early to expect only a flow of sweet reason from Transport House. There are ominous rumours of continued pressure towards a 40-hour week, and of a budget of difficulties rather than helpful advice on the problem of staggering the hours of work. The public will give grateful thanks for any glimmering of a sense of national responsibility. But the fact is that it is within the power of the T.U.C. to make a major con- tribution to the solution of Britain's economic problem. Deliberate restriction of individual effort is undoubtedly a crucial factor, and the unions above all are familiar with its many manifestations in bad time-keeping, wasteful apprenticeship rules, unofficial strikes and the whole gamut of restrictive practices. The public is in the dark as to how to deal with these things, but the unions at least work in a stronger light and it is always to be hoped that they will use their influence on the side of sanity.
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