Aug. 29.
Newspapers at last received from London give an interesting account of Mr. J, H, Thomas's emergency Schemes for coping with unemployment, They may be'called "emergency," because Mx, Thomas emphasized that he was for the moment thinking of the sure necessities of the coming winter. His-greater _pro-Jects, as alluded to in the King's: Speech, still. require mich thought and Mr. Thomas said that he had no' intention of bringing them before the House until he had them cut-and-died and was able to answer every point raised. The studious moderation of. Mr. Thomas's speech and, in their broad outline, of his," present proposals earned general praise, not unmingled with ironical "comment_on the difference between a Socialist Minister in, and out of, office. One sentence, in this connection, deserves to be quoted in full.
Every day and hour (Mr, Thomas said) that he considered this pros} Dlem—and he was applying himself strenuously to it—eonvineed him not only of the formidableness of the task but of the 101 difficulties which he had to overcome, If he fasted_on one scheme, he found that this local authority had to be consulted, that there was an Act of Parliament there, or that, surveys and specifications had to be gone through, With all these things he had to deal and he found, often, that the balance was equal. Although his proposals might be criticized because they were not bold enough, he asked the Committee to believe him when he said! hat the maximum amount. which hie could see was possible to be done to-day was being done, Asa matter of fact, Mr.
Thomas's schemes, as so far revealed, are hardly to be called' Socialism, or, if they are, it is} of an inverted kind, making use of all the resources of capitalism anil private enterprise, Putting it as concisely as ible, Mr. Them quest that the Government mowered to guarantee repay ment of prinefpal, and into on loans up to a total of £25,0 000, These facilities would be accorded to local municipal authorities and to. public utility undertakings operating under statutory powers, such as railways, docks, tramways, light railways, electricity and gas. For this purpose Mr. Thomas mens considerably to enlarge the powers of the Unemployment, Grants Committee and to give them much wider discretion in the' amount of unemployment which must be proved in a given district before a loan is granted. Mr, Thomas said that he knew of many bodies which would immediately set to work on a variety of useful schemes if they could borrow the money for them reasonable rates, In the course of debate, it came out that the Government were virtually secking unlimited authority to give subsidies to commercial undertakings engaged in public entéxprises, for that is what the promise to' guarantee the inte:- est on loans raised by private tinnis really means.—Furthermore, Parliament would only sanction the grant in retrospect, not' beforehand. To this the House, which is always jealous of its' control in financial matters, took strong exception. Furthermore, it was objected, if subsidies were granted to one form of industry, why not to another? If the railways, which Mr, Thomas is particularly anxious to help, and few people would deny him, are to be given a loan, why not a basic under-taling'like iron and steel? Mr. Thomas will got his way, but there is much in his proposals to make one ponder.
said above, if this is ism, then it is of a curious The State finds the money, development, but turns to that Bir,. Thomas's plan is only a less effective form of out-and-out Protection. There is no difference in principle between taxing the nation in order to subsidize a given industry, and making people pay higher prices for-'n foreign-made. article in order to stimulate its manufacture by a native firm: in point] of fact, as safeguarding of industries has shown, the latter course is the less expensive of the two, as it not only means more men at work and fewer on "the dole", but seems not improbable that, when the time comes for the framing of next year's Budget, there will be a collision between Mr. Snowden and Mr, Thomas. Mr. Snowden has already announced that it has always been the Labour policy to abolish the McKenna duties and all forms of safeguarding. Every speech of Mr. Thomas's reveals him as tending insensibly towards Protection, stimulation of Empire trade, preference in buying things at ome. which hitherto have been got from abroad, and now subventions for private firms. It} not impossible that other Ministers and private members of the Party, too, may be drawn into the fray, During the elections, the Labour candidate at Nottingham was obliged to declare himself in favour of safeguarding of industries owing to} the immense benefit derived from it by lace-making, one woman publicly declaring' that not for eighteen years had her husband, a lace-maker, done a full week' work, until the industry was! safeguarded, since when he had not lost an hour, The Nottingham candidate's experience can hardly have been unique. What one would hope is that, before Budget time comes round, Conservative members will close up their ranks on this most important question, and marshal all available facts. They made but a poor showing in the discussion of Mr. Snowden's announcement, With the even distribution of numbers in the House of Commons there is a real possibility of having the whole question considered in the only light it should be, not that of party interest, but natio
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.