THE TABLET. July 7th, 195«. VOL 705. No. «059

Published as a Newspaper

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

JULY 7th, 1956

N1NEPENCE

The Price of Growth: An Essential Mobi. 'y

The Meaning of the Poznan Rising: Reaching Breaking Point,

With the Security Forces in Cyprus : Impressions of Improvement. By Hugh Noyes

Towards the African Future: The Capricorn Convention at Salima : II

Homage of St. Joan of Are : Celebrations at Rouen

St. Ignatius: Father Brodrick's New Volume. Reviewed by the Bishop of Salford

Three Poems : By Alfred Noyes

Critics* Columns : Notebook : Book Reviews : Letters : Chess

WHEN MARKETS CONTRACT

\ S these things go, it is a victory for moderation that * * the National Union of Miners, in its Conference, has left discretion with the executive about when to ask for further wage increases. The claim was maintained that, whatever happens elsewhere, the real value of wages in the industry must be maintained. But it does not seem unreasonable optimism to think that the political extremists have been checked for the moment in their idea that they can bring down a Government they dislike by forcing the inflationary spiral upward another turn or two. The Chancellor can point to some further successes in pegging prices; newsprint is the latest commodity which will stay as it is until at any rate the end of the year. But politically the Opposition are making the most of the summary dismissals in the motor industry, blaming the Government for allowing an expansion of the industry only a short while ago. If the implication here is that permits should have been necessary, the burden of proof is with the believers in this kind of planning that they can gauge the possibilities of overseas markets betterathan the people who have made it their main business to assess these inevitably doubtful matters.

The problem is a permanent one, that with the specialisation of labour, and still more of machinery, a vast capital expenditure is called for, where there can be no certainty that the market will remain. When Adam Smith was writing and the classical economists were developing the concept of the mobility of labour, that labour really was primarily a matter of muscle in the lower and junior walks. The good workman who became a craftsman, a cabinet maker from being a joiner, did not change from one occupation to another. But he could take his special skill from one place to another. But factories are not mobile, and, though the war showed what could be done in the way of changing over from one article to another, when cost did not rule, it is, broadly speaking, true in an industry like the motor industry that the capital involved, the specialised character of the machinery, what automation can be installed to do, all presuppose not only a steady but an expanding market for a particular thing. If this market should fail, the great capital outlay which is meant to be economical becomes wasteful. When the expenditure has been incurred, the market dries up because of balance of payment difficulties. The whole home market here has been curtailed in order to cut down the imports used in the manufacture of cars. The Australian market has been curtailed to correct excessive imports there.

As far as the home market here is concerned, the Government would like to see men who have been using imported material to make cars for the home market making something for export, and preferably something that does not require imported raw materials. Next best, it would like lo see the men employed in the home market in activities not requiring imports, though almost every part of the home market that expands in fact increases the demand for imports, if not for the business activity, then as a way in which the wages earned are spent.

When methods change, as with automation, or when markets contract, the blow should be softened by as much notice and consultation as possible; but it is also true that those who have grown to think that within the Welfare State they would have no need to save, should realise that there cannot be the certainty of continuous employment, in the same place and at the same rate, that would be in many ways so socially desirable. This issue, as it will increasingly affect this country, is discussed in our leading article. The abruptness with which large-scale dismissals have been made has been defended on the ground that in other factories preliminary discussions with the men’s unions have proved very costly because very lengthy affairs. But this will have to be counted in among the costs of