LONDON TALKS
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends London Talks By William Henry Chamberlin LONDON. 1HAVE SELDOM ENJOYED so many interesting conversations as in London during this summer. The crisis in...
...Are hoaded aow for further troubles...
...Jaroslav Drobny, self-exiled tennis star...
...They promise, in a newly issued booklet entitled (aptly, some say) The Right Road for Britain, not to harm a hair on that ogre Nationalization's head, except to turn back a minor factory here and there to private hands...
...For in and on the courts It's tough When sports and politics plsy doubles...
...But there has been nothing like the, amount of Industrial stoppage wo had after the First WorM War...
...We have boon living la a 'phony war' fools' paradise...
...Tbo Csocas, in If ant plsgaed enough...
...The middle class standard of living has already declined heavily...
...Woodcock as a weaver...
...Britain's wealth Is gone with the empire...
...For s country In our geographical position that la a matter of life and death...
...He professed confidence about the outcome of thd next election...
...Ws have noon bothered with unofficial strikes sad slowdowns among misers, dockers acid railwayman...
...I expect the whole national standard of living to f all In the next years...
...Between the wars we had queues for unemployment relief...
...It is a veteran Labor party publicist, a convinced democratic socialist...
...What worries us about Tory supervision of the newly developing British economy is that it could develop into just that sort of horror George Orwell warns against in his novel, Nineteen Eighty Four...
...Now we have queues for moving pictures and football games...
...Wo have all been at f aulti too many toe much TJonl work yourself out of a Job' psychology among our trade unionists...
...Asked about the "dollar gap," he recognized it as a major problem, but expressed confidence that the economic situation would not "get out of control...
...And talk about the welfare state...
...Churchill's boys—who in America would be the equivalent of Taft, Wherry, Byrd, Martin, Halleck, Ellender, and similar progressives—will, according to The Right Road, give Britons super-welfare...
...THIS IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE speaking, although many Conservatives think in these terms...
...in super-abundance, of course...
...is dishonest electioneering...
...The Communists* If they wore an Indigenous British parry, they could provide competition by professing to bo more to the left than the Labor party...
...And It Is still aardsVto convince the raaJt-and-ttle not to proas for higher wages>ttbw...
...Richard Armear...
...Perhaps our Tories are out to prove they think consistently in anarchic terms whether It be economics or party office...
...I herewith set down the gist of some of these talks...
...Bat so long ss they are such obvious Moscow stooges, the great majority of the British workingmen have bo use for thorn...
...it may be that Britain's Tories who, unlike ours, have always been more attuned to social need, realistically recognize that society can no longer exist without some degree of nationalization...
...Taxation is terrific, about forty per cent of the national income, and it is so badly assessed that it penalizes the man who is working and producing and favors the man who is selling out and realizing a capital gain...
...But we must got our unit costs down...
...But he felt Bevin had been disappointingly unimaginative, first in his handling of the Palestine situation, now in his insistence on dismantling German factories...
...Like Phillips, Woodcock is a self-educated worker, a representative of tire, leadership which the J^abcr, party^aAd the trade unions have forged through labor schools and colleges...
...This island Is really shockingly overpopulated in relation to its sue and resources...
...If we want to avoid s rosily sharp drop la our standard of living...
...I like our present queues better," was one of Woodcock's statements...
...Since the rest of us don't relish a companion note—and want National Geographic to survive, besides—we submit that our Tories might attempt to climb down off those rickety "free enterprise" stilts and try solid'cement for a change...
...We're not sure*we agree wtfb Clement Aitlee that jtfUWs...
...5) which says at the bottom of page 22 that, despite the British Labor government's difficulties, "few shrewd Britons would yet give even money on a Tory victory" next election...
...Now I give the floor to a prominent Conservative leader in the House of Commons: "The Labor Government has been running the country on the assumption that the inflationary boom at the end of the war would go on forever...
...in others our conversations were private...
...He approved of most of the government's domestic policies, especially the free public health service...
...Phillips started life as a miner...
...Finally, a word from one of the most brilliant editors in England, a man who has freely criticized both Labor and Conservative attitudes and policies: "Our economic position now Is lilts oar military position after Hitler broke Into France...
...IN THE SAME BUILDING is the office^of George Woodcock, prominent official in the Trade Union Congress...
...ho said, "tor s trade union leads* who has boon fighting for higher wages all his Ufa to adopt the attitude of restraint and cooperation wo need la the present situation...
...The crisis in Britain's balance of dollar payments, the labor disputes' on the railways and docks, the election which will take place next year—all furnished abundant material for discussion...
...The Labor party, according to Phillips, has five and a half million members, almost 700,000 belonging as individuals and the remainder affiliated through trade unions...
...In some cases the person speaking can be identified...
...Nationalisation certainly has not cheapened costs of fuel transport, gas and electricity, and I don't ,not)ce workers showing any more enthusiasm T>ecause they draw' their pay from public boards and not from private firms...
...Staunchly convinced of the general correctness of Labor policy, Woodcock, like most Englishmen of all points of view, was frank and reasonable in admitting difficulties and drawbacks...
...Fortunately, America doesn't seem destined for that fate in the foreseeable future if GOP Anarchy persists over relatively simple issues like the party's national chairmanship...
...The present recession is catching us with prices far too high to maintain our competitive position in world markets...
...XXXIV, No...
...Discussing the future, Phillips described the Labor Party ideal as a mixed economy, with the state running the basic industries through public boards and, in his words, "helping private enterprise to be sufficiently enterprising...
...Like the pachyderm, they are doubtless aiming at a note in a future issue of National Geographic...
...It Isn't easy...
...Morgan Phillips, the efficient Secretary of the Labor party, received me in his 'office in Transport House, the combined headquarters of the closely associated Labor party and the Trade Union Congress- To my first question, what had been the main achievements of the Labor party during its four years in power, he replied: Full employment, social security measures, free health service, amicable settlement of the question of Indian independence, colonial development along lines free from old-fashioned imperialist explotation...
...Now ws must face the fact that the run on sterling la threatening the food sad the employment of our people...
...Reporting that British businessmen foresee labor disputes were the Conservatives to gain power, Newsweek continues, "That is why they are talking again of a national government----" We apologize to Newsweek for exploiting it as a transmission belt to convey to Tories at home what Tories abroad are thinking, but we deem it important for the American brand not to forget what happened when they wrote off us "socialist planners" last November...
...Further reports indicate that, for all their Churchillian bluster, the Conservatives are largely Me-Tooing Labor and then some...
...NIT RESULTS "They are mixing sports and politics in Czechoslovakia now...
...He repudiated syndicalism and declared that as far back as 1932 the Labor party had committed itself to the principle of the public board, staffed with experts, as the form of organization for nationalized industries...
...Wo had better take off our costs now sad pitch in...
...After slL no one owes as a living, beyond what wo caa earn by ear own efforts la a com' poUHvo worleV' Advice to Tories of superfine quality was politely discernible in this issue of N ems week (August 1, Vol...
...Wo Conservatives want the best social services our country can afford...
Vol. 32 • August 1949 • No. 32
