Tit-Bits from the Press (1941)

From the August 1941 issue of the Socialist Standard

Fierce Competition after the War

At the annual meeting of Salts (Saltaire), Ltd., Sir Frank B. Sanderson, M.P., stated (Daily Telegraph, July I7th, 1941) : —

“Britain must plan now for post-war export trade. Peace would bring in its train fierce competition in the world’s markets, and it was only by planning in advance that we should be able to hold our own. A definite, carefully calculated, and well-defined trading policy would be essential. Preferential exports, priority of transport facilities, and stabilising of exchanges were but a few of the matters that would require searching thought.”

There is something rather clear-cut about this picture—something rather different from the nebulous images of the Priestleys. the Morrisons, and the Bevins. It pictures the return of capitalism as we know it from the past—not only fierce competition in the markets of the world, but fierce competition for jobs, unemployment, and poverty and insecurity for the producers.

What Dorothy Thompson Thinks

Among the reasons being given as to why the U.S.A. should enter the war now, the following, by the well-known American writer, Dorothy Thompson, is worth placing on record : —

“The alternative to acting now is either the possible defeat of the British Isles before this year is over, and, in that case, the certainty of a terribly disadvantageous war for the United States, or a very long and exhausting war of attrition, with unforeseeable revolutionary consequences arising out of chaos and starvation.”

Who will do the Unpleasant Tasks ?

One of the most frequent objections raised to Socialist ideas is that under Socialism most people will want to do the pleasant tasks. The present war provides an irrefutable answer to this objection. Numerous instances have been recorded in the Press of how not only men, but women and youths, have, without reward, risked their lives in extinguishing incendiary bombs, putting out fires, rescuing people from falling debris, driving ambulances while bombs are falling, and so on. The motive for these acts of heroism is the belief that the war is a just one—for freedom and the stamping out of Fascism and Nazism. Just as willingly will people be ready to take part in all the tasks of the community when they have assured knowledge that all those tasks are indeed directed towards the common weal.

R. M.