T H E T A B L E T , J u n e 16th, 1951

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 197, No. 5795

LONDON, JUNE 16th, 1951

SIXPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1 8 4 0

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

NO THOROUGHFARE A Welcome Uneasiness in the Political Parties

HORSES OR HORSE POWER Second Thoughts on Farm Mechanization. By Jorian Jenks DISPOSING OF THE “CLASS FIVE CITIZENS”

The Evictions from Cracow and Budapest TRADE AND EUROPEAN UNITY A Valuable Conference o f E .L .E .C . By John Biggs-Davison HYPERION AND THE SATYR THE MIND OF COLERIDGE

By Peter Watts

By T. S . Gregory

THE MASTER FORMULA I N the House o f Lords, Lord Cherwell, with his gift for succinct summary, defined the present position o f the country, where the terms o f trad e with the outside world have deteriorated by about 40 per cent and two-fifths more work is necessary th an in December, 1945, to get the same imports. “ Meanwhile prices continue steadily to rise, and our savings, our pensions and our covenanted benefits are gradually, silently, little by little, filched away.” And he said, with great tru th : “W hat an outcry there would have been if, five years ago, anyone had proposed to cut pensions and benefits by one-quarter.” Inflation threatens to make nonsense o f all the social security which rests on the covenanted paym ent of fixed sums in the years ahead. But it cannot be said th a t the Government show much appreciation o f the great aggravation o f the general position which every avoidable piece o f Government expenditure involves. It is an im portant element in every price increase. The taxi-drivers, who watch the enforced reluctance o f those who used to be their patrons to indulge in what is now the extravagance o f private conveyance, understand, we hope, th a t one o f the contributing elements is the taxation which repeatedly enters in to all manufacturing, and forces u p the cost o f taxi-cabs.

and the T rade Unions less preponderant. But they have understood the need for flexibility, and the im portance o f liberalizing the market, because the worst possible background against which to make calls to greater effort is where money cannot buy much today, and where its value tom orrow is uncertain ; while there is a th ird discouragem ent wherever people are encouraged to th ink they will no t need personal savings for any essential purpose because the S tate will provide. Where there is little to spend money on, and little incentive to save or invest it, it becomes exceedingly tempting for men to prefer the pleasures o f ease to the pleasure o f earning, in a way it is not a t all in the public interest th a t they should do a t the present juncture. French Prognostications

The only answer, for this country as for all other countries now making good their precipitate disarm ament, is in an increase o f productivity, which can alone save the standard o f living during the years o f intensive rearm ament. The Organization for European Economic Co-operation, calling fo r this productivity, believes it can be achieved, and points to the good results since 1947, which have carried the output o f goods and services in Europe to a figure one-seventh higher than before the War. The population is only one-tenth higher, and there has been vast destruction to make good, but there is a natural tendency fo r productivity to increase, and the tendency is strongest in those very fields o f industrial activity where rearm ament is, and will be, felt most heavily.

This increase o f ou tp u t is the main answer to inflation, and inflation, as President T rum an pointed ou t last week, is the g reat weapon upon which Moscow relies, a weapon which, given sufficient irresolute and demagogic statesm en in the Western countries, would bring the West to ruin and defeat. It therefore becomes essential for statesm en to study the conditions which will best prom o te this essential productivity, and for British Statesmen to recognize th a t it is no good paying lip-service to increase production and then a t the same time fostering attitudes and maintaining regulations which are a discouragem ent and hindrance to the necessary increase. T he Western countries o f the European mainland, so much derided in Labour Party speeches, have a rath e r different problem from o u r s ; they are countries where agricultu re is proportionately much more im portant than it is here,

The campaign for the F rench elections this Sunday has not been marked by any great excitement o r p ropaganda displays, except on the part o f the Communists. The o ther parties seem to have exhausted their insufficient funds o r decided th a t the combined list is enough to safeguard their victory. But the Communists will leave nothing to chance, and, a lthough their posters can be seen th roughout the year, they have noticeably increased their propaganda. The Figaro last week reported th a t from January 1st to May 28th—that is, to the beginning o f the election campaign—the Communist Party in the Seine D epartm ent alone had spent over 66 million francs on posters, handbills and pamphlets. The Communist Press, after profits, salaries, rents and other expenses have been accounted for, is estim ated to cost the party, over the same period, a to ta l o f 636 million francs. It is pretty obvious th a t the party funds alone could never cover this enormous drain, and th a t financial help is coming from foreign sources.

The anti-C ommunist organization “ Paix e t L iberté” is alm ost the only one which has undertaken a wider election propaganda. One o f its posters showed the Eiffel Tower with the Soviet flag floating from the top and the inscription in large letters : Jamais cela : but the Communists pasted their handbills over the Soviet flag, and now nobody knows to what the “ ceto” in the Eiffel Tower picture refers.

Forecasts o f the results have appeared in alm ost all the newspapers, and all agree in allowing large gains to General de G aulle’s R P F , and corresponding losses to the MRP. The Figaro has prepared its readers for a new Assembly o f 120 representatives for the RPF, 110 Communists, 100 o f the M oderate Right parties, 95 Socialists, 90 Radicals and allied groups, and 90 MRP. Aurore, which is in opposition to the Government but no t pro-Socialist, foresees a Socialist victory, with the RPF as second. The Communists, MRP, Moderate Right parties, and Radicals, Franc-tireur and