The T.U.C. and Production
It is natural enough that a firm demand for the overhaul the machinery of production should come from the trade un -.movement. Trade unionists ,know better than anyone that o total war production is far below what it would be if it we more efficiently conducted. The T.U.C. General Cound declared last Monday that it was "very perturbed at the numben of reports of slackness which it is receiving from unions and other quarters." It transpires also that it was the trade urn side of the Central Joint Advisory Committee to the Productio Executive of the Cabinet which recently moved for the appoint ment of a small joint sub-committee to examine the present machinery of production. Mr. Sevin is chairman of the Production Executive. It is hardly likely to resist a proposal which has the whole backing of the trade union movement and has on its side powerful representative managers who have already, as The Spectator pointed out last week, been strong!! pressing the same case. The organisation of production need reform from the top to the bottom—beginning, assuredly, from the top. The waste of competition between the services, d unskilled placing of orders, of capacity neglected or misdirected must end. Centralisation at the top and, below, decentralisation through the regions and districts, with the help of representative of the managements in each trade section, are among the change which must be made before production will begin. to be satis- factory. But the chief need is for a Minister of Production.
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