Drop the Slogans and Give Us the Materials — Mr.
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C. W. Reeve AMOST trenchant castigation of the Government and its muddleheaded policy was made by Mr. C. NV. Reeve, C.B.E., chairman of the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., at the company's ordinary general meeting, last week.
Pointing out that workers and managements were tired of "injunctions, enjoinders and exhortations" to increase production, Mr. Reeve asked: "What satisfaction is there for a worker, who has given of his best, to leave the factory only to find that the product of his labours, which should have been put into service or have been exported, is still lying about the place because of the lack of some accessory or material with which to complete it? Yet that is a daily experience and the worker is not slow to note that, with all the talk of planning, something has gone wrong somewhere."
Mr. Reeve compared the statement by the president of the Trades Union Congress, that the Government had no overall plan for industry, with a state
ment by another prominent member of the Government that, "after all, planning, though big and complicated, is not much more than applied common sense."
He added that the idea that there were only two parties in industry— capital and labour—and that they were always opposed to one another, was altogether out of date. Money, management, materials, mechanization and men were, he declared, the five essentials of present business organization.
"The material supply position is indeed grave and, whilst it is possible to understand the facile excuses put forward by Government spokesmen, who are always so wise after the event, we have yet to learn why it is that insufficient foresight was exercised when the so-called planning on a national scale commenced," Mr. Reeve continued.
"That we have in our history to muddle through wars is something we have been accustomed to expect,
because we know that the conduct of war is in the hands of Government, through its Civil Servants, but that we should be expected to go on muddling in and through the peace is something beyond our comprehension.
" Most certainly do we look to Government to tell us what are the international or national factors likely to affect industry or trade, but never have we desired, or anticipated, that the detail work of carrying on our respective businesses should be planned by inexperienced gentlemen sitting in sheltered offices far removed from the hurly-burly of everyday industrial or commercial life."
After pointing out that the shortage of steel was "assuming the proportions of a national scandal" and would inevitably cause prices to be increased, Mr. Reeve said: "We see little hope of improvement until the vast increase in non-productive Government employees is countered by the posting ofthousands of them to productive work."