Fight Against Post-war Control!
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An Example of What the Ex-Serviceman May Have to Face When Opening a Business Unless Great Pressure Can be Brought to Bear on the Government and All Who Demand Excessive Controls
By "Tantalus"
LIGHT is beginning to .percolate through the gloom of uncertainty and perplexity regarding" the future of ex-Servicemen. The source of illumination springs from the story of an ex-staff-sergeant recently invalided out of the Army. For the benefit of those readers who are not acquainted with the story already, it is as follows;— On returning to civilian life the staff-sergeant decided that he would like to open a little business on his own behalf, doubtless hoping to realize an ambition often dreamed of while serving. He and his wife accordingly took the first steps to this end and sent off to the Board of Trade an application for a licence to open a bicycle business which, by the way, was being offered by a friend to the ex-staff-sergeant, who is a skilled man in this particular trade. The Board of Trade replied that it is the responsibility of all applicants for new businesses to prove that " public needs require such a business." This meant an appearance before a tribunal by the applicant, which involved necessary travelling expenses. Ultimately he was offered a licence which permitted him to sell only batteries and motorcar accessories. To quote his owA words, the ex-staff-sergeant said: " ft makes you wOnder what is going to happen to all the ei-Servicemen when they come home after the war and -want to start up businesses of their own. I'm not going to lie down to this decision, I am going to fight it with, I hope, the help of the British Legion." That is the story, with a clear indication of the shape of
• things to come.
The case, doubtless, is one of many which will be multi-plied exceedingly when demobilization takes 'place. It would seem, rather, that a leaf has been taken out of the book of the M.,O.W.T. with regard to an applicant having to " prove need." These words will revive the memories of hauliers everywhere.
TT it be the Government policy to institute a system of Licensing Courts or Tribunals, armed with Uiscretiotary powers, to decide whether or not an ex-Serviceman shall be permitted to start a business, the future prospects indeed are sombre and, present a serious aspect. • The Council of Retail Distributors has compiled certain data which reveals that 100,000 retail distributors have -been put out of. business since war commenced and, as hostilities continue, this figure olaviously must be increased considerably. Without the aid of anything in the nature of a vivid imagination it is easy to visualize what may happen if only a proportion of this number desires to , reopen former businesses or to earn a livelihood by way of a new business. Are such .individuals to be subjected to the rigours of Licensing Courts, regarding which hauliers from experience can speak, so feelingly? ,
How Many "Casualties" of Hauliers?
It would be vastly interesting if the road-transport is organizations were in a position to provide similar figures to those of the retail distributors respecting " casualties " in road-haulage, which must be heavy indeed.
The struggle between control and' private enterprise shows little sign of abating. Politicians and members of the public alike are more clearly defining their attitudes and expressing their individual views even more forcibly. For instance, in a recent speech, Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, declared: " I trust that, for the benefit of national life, those on whom responsibilities shall rest in the future for the organization of commerce will remove, as soon as circumstances permit, those controls which damp and deaden spirit and enterprise."
This contribution in support of private enterprise versus control is particularly valuabl; for few men have wider experience and .knowledge of control than Lord Woolton. The whole case is contained in the words —which damn and deaden spirit and enterprise."
One of the criticisms of the Government Haulage Scheme is that the incentive, spirit and initiative of employer and employee are being slowly but surely drained. Movement _of traffics and operation of vehicles by regulation, official procedure and the filling of numerous forms, all are reducing road-haulage to the level of an automaton, controlled by a horde of officials. If hauliers had been given the assurance that the scheme is of a temporary character and merely a war-time expedient, they would have grinned and borne the burden willingly, regarding it as their contribu
• tion to the war effort. No, such pledge has been forthcoming, however, and there can be few hauliers who do not view the future with doubts and fears. However optimistically they may desire to regard the position, through grim experieuce they are forced into the Slough of Despond; for no teaching can excel that gained in the school of experience. [Although there may be no definite pledge of this nature each agreement with a controlled undertaking will end six months after the cessation of hostilities with Germany, or, at .the Minister's option at the end of six months after any later cessation of hostilities With any major power, provided that the Minister may, in either 'case, extend the period of six months for a further similar period.—En.]
Lord Leathers's Statement Disappointing
When it was known recently that Lord Leathers, Minister of War Transpoft, was to make a statement in the House of Lads outlining the Government's policy for post-war transport, it was anticipated by those engaged in roadhaulage that some special reference would be made to the industry. Consequently, when the terms of the speech became known disappointment ensued,not so much at what had been said as at what was left unsaid. It waa obviouS that the railways stole the thunder and were the Minister's first concern. He 'stated that the rail problem remained the main problem to be solved. That the -railways are a national asset which must be maintained in full efficiency with their financial stability firmly established.
Unlike other members of the Government, Lord Leathers gave no .indication of his views regarding controls, as to whether he favoured their abolition in his post-war plans, or whether they should be retained as a permanent feature. This omission is regarded as disappointing and even as a sign as to the direction in which the wind is blowing. A further significant omission is that relating to the question of the post-war status of hauliers and the reinstatement of ex-Servicemen in the industry. It is difficult to understand how these two problems can be excluded from postwar planning which, surely, they cannot.
In attempting to read between the lines it would appear that road-transport is cast for a minor role in the post-war national transport system, with the railways taking the lead. If this assumption should prove correct, members of the industry, na.tUrally, will demand to know to what extent the leaders have been responsible for the position and whether they have aequiesced in a policy which may relegate road-transport to a*minor place in the national -transport scheme.
The whole question of post-war planning is. so closely related to war-time development of controls that the two cannot he separated. If, then, road-transport is to have any opportunity at all of reverting to pre-war freedom it must plan and organize now. Before this can be done members of ,the .industry must know precisely where the leaders stand in* relation to the Government policy— whether they are for or " agin " it.
The issue is one of principle which must over-ride all other considerations as the hase on which the post-war world is to be built. A wise man has written: " One lesson, and one lesson only, history may be said to teach with distinctness: the world is built on moral foundations. Institutions perish, customs change and alter, kingdoms rise and fall. The moral law alone is enshrined on the tablets of eternity."